Source: Inquirer.net (Philippines)
Lucena City, Philippines - A big-time financier is behind the illegal logging by Quezon natives inside the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park in Isabela province, an executive of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said Wednesday.
At the same time, Assistant Secretary David Suarez admitted to radio station dwKI-FM here that the DENR has not been able to apprehend all of the migrant tree cutters in its recent operations.
"The report that illegal loggers from my province have shifted operations to Isabela was really disheartening. But, sad to admit, more of them are still in the area. Not all of them were apprehended by the authorities," Suarez, a former Quezon vice governor, said.
On Monday, Isabela Governor Grace Padaca, interviewed by the same radio station, said more than 100 illegal loggers she called "Quezon boys" have been operating in the portion of the Sierra Madre mountain range within her province.
According to Padaca, the Quezon boys, mostly from Real and Mauban towns, have either been directly involved in illegal logging or financing it.
She said Quezon Governor Rafael Nantes had helped transport apprehended loggers back to their home province.
Report say the migrant illegal loggers from Quezon are heavily armed and dangerous.
Jay Lim, community coordinator of the Tanggol Kalikasan (Defenders of Nature)-Southern Luzon, who is a member of the government task force in Isabela, explained that most of the migrant loggers from Quezon have settled in Isabela for years now.
"Most of them have already brought their families. Some have married Isabela natives," Lim said.
He said loggers from the two provinces have a long-running "unholy partnership.
Often, illegal logs seized in the coastal towns of Real and Mauban in Quezon are found to have originated from Isabela and Aurora provinces. The two towns have long been the transshipment point of illegal forest products bound for Metro Manila and other Southern Tagalog provinces.
Father Pete Montallana, head of Task Force Sierra Madre, reiterated the importance of providing livelihood to thousands of mountain dwellers and other stakeholders.
"If the government will continue to ignore the desperate plight of mountain stakeholders and will always turn deaf and blind to the widespread corruption in DENR field workers, the destruction of the country's natural resources will never stop," Montallana said over the phone.
Suarez said the government allocated a P2-billion reforestation fund to rehabilitate the country's denuded forest.
He said the reforestation contracts would be awarded to mountain stakeholders and that contractors who might only use upland dwellers for labor would be barred from the process.
"Our aim is to plant fruit-bearing and endemic trees. For sure, the mountain villagers will not cut fruit trees because [these provide] them with cashable crops," Suarez said.
But Montallana was not impressed with the highly funded reforestation program.
"There had been several reforestation programs in the past. But what happened? Many just end up in the pockets of corrupt government men," the priest lamented.
About Tanggol Kalikasan
- Tanggol Kalikasan
- (Defense of Nature) is a non-stock, non-profit and non-governmental organization doing public interest lawyering in the Philippines. It has operated as an environmental law office for 17 years already. Tanggol works with national and international partners and networks and has its main office in Quezon City. It also maintains fully-staffed area offices in Alaminos City, Pangasinan (Northern Luzon Office) and Lucena City (Southern Luzon Office) and field offices in Lipa City and Baao, Camarines Sur.