Hot lumber confiscated by LMWD security personnel
PALO, Leyte — Security personnel of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District confiscated more than 600 board feet of red lauan flitches inside a watershed area in Dagami town.
The confiscated logs, scaled at 641.32 board feet, were turned over to the community environment and resources office (CENRO), this town, for safekeeping, Gerundio Calabia, water resource development officer of the LMWD, said.
The owner of the illegally cut logs was identified as Milo Cabidog, a resident of Barangay Rizal, where the logs were discovered.
According to Calabia, the hot logs were discovered by the agency’s watershed guards in the said barangay, about eight kilometers away from the town proper of Dagami, on the night of October 31.
“They were on a security patrol when they discovered the logs,” the LMWD official said.
He said that Barangay Rizal is located within the vast watershed area of the LMWD.
The discovery of the illegal logging activity within the water reservoir at the Binahaan River, which spans from Ormoc City, Jaro, Dagami, Tanauan, Pastrana and Palo towns, was most appalling, Calabia said.
Cutting trees along the watershed area would affect the volume of water of the river which serves as a major source of the LMWD, he said, adding that illegal activities on these areas was the reason why their agency has to hire private security personnel on top of their own watershed guards.
Ricarte Cableng, chief of the forest management service of the CENRO, said that the identified owner of the hot logs, Milo Cabidog, would be charged with violation of Presidential Decree 705 or the Forestry Code.
Cableng said that they would use the confiscated logs, turned over last Tuesday, as evidence in filing charges against Cabidog. He, however, could not say as to when they would file the charges against the suspect.
Based on his estimates, the 641.32 board feet of red Lauan has a market value of more than P22,000.
It could not determine yet if the cut logs were to be delivered by the suspect to a lumberyard or for his personal use.
It was learned from Cableng that Dagami is one of the “hot spots” within their area as far as illegal logging is concerned. Aside from Dagami, illegal logging is also reported in the towns of San Miguel, Lapaz, Carigara, Jaro, MacArthur and Babatngon.
“But the illegal logging activity on these areas are not that widespread. These are either used for personal use or house construction,” the CENRO official said.
Illegal logging activities within their areas covered, which include Tacloban City and 19 towns, is no longer as serious in previous years, Cableng said.
From January up to this time, about 3,000 board feet of different kinds of woods were confiscated by their office, he added. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
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