DENR appoints bishop head of anti-illegal logging groups in Sierra Madre

Author: Ira Karen Apanay

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Wednesday named Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona to head the citizens’ arm against illegal logging activities in the mountainous areas of Sierra Madre.
Tirona will oversee two environmental watchdog bodies in the fight against illegal logging in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges.
Tirona, head of the prelature of Infanta, will act as “co-chairman” for two multi-partite teams which Atienza authorized, among others, to devise monitoring schemes within the Sierra Madre area to prevent further logging in areas that are part of northern Quezon and Aurora provinces.
The teams have been fighting illegal logging especially in the towns of Real, Infanta and General Nakar in Quezon. Head of the teams are Fr. Pete Montallana of the Indigenous Peoples Apostolate of the Diocese of Infanta and that environmentalist group Task Force Sierra Madre (TFSM), and environmental lawyer Shiela de Leon of Tanggol Kalikasan.
In April, DENR Secretary Lito Atienza relieved former Dingalan DENR-Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer Meliton Vicente after confirming reports from Fr. Montallana’s group that illegal logging operations in Dingalan, Aurora had resumed and that hot logs were being clandestinely smuggled out through the Nueva Ecija and Rizal routes for transport to sawmills and lumberyards in Metro Manila.
The DENR said in a statement that Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officers Herminigildo Jocson for Quezon and Benjamin Mina for Aurora will work with Tirona as chairpersons of the two teams, respectively.
Under the memorandum order, the teams can call on other concerned offices or officials that can assist in getting their tasks done.
The teams are also authorized to recommend “any or all of its members and any person” to be deputized as Environment and Natural Resources Officers.