Undocumented logs seized in Tacloban

TACLOBAN CITY, Sept. 29 (PNA) -- Authorities confiscated several undocumented lumbers from a boat building area in this city in a raid Wednesday afternoon.

Joint operatives of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Tacloban City police, Philippine Navy, Philippine Air Force, Army engineering battalion, and Philippine Coast Guard caught carpenters constructing a boat made of undocumented yakal and lauan lumbers in a compound along the shores of this city’s Anibong district.

A total of 10,000 board feet of dipterocarp lumber worth PHP1.2 million, a band saw, and a chainsaw with no serial numbers were recovered from the area allegedly rented by Mario Rodriguez, owner of 'Decolores' fishing boats.

A carpenter claimed that three more boats have already been constructed in the area. They got their lumber supplies from Marabut, Samar, known as the region’s illegal logging hotspot.

DENR assistant regional director Carlito Tuballa said since a total log ban in being implemented nationwide, the owner of said lumber and equipment will be charged for violation of the Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines.

The chainsaw and other pieces of lumber were brought to San Jose district for safekeeping, while the unfinished boat and other equipments were left under the custody of Anibong village councilor Rizaldo Eval.

According to Eval, they are not aware of the illegal activities inside the compound since gates are always closed.

"We only thought that they dock their fishing boats here, but we did not know that they are actually built here," he said. (PNA)
BNB/SQM/RAVEN LUNA/EGR