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NASIPIT, Agusan del Norte (MindaNews/9 Dec) – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Caraga Region tightened its checkpoint operations after discovering here last Tuesday that even privately owned closed vans and trucks are used to transport illegal logs.
A tire van owned by the Bachelor Express, Inc. was caught carrying 141 slabs of Narra equivalent to about 2,700 board feet as it was about to pass the monitoring station of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in this municipality.
CENRO personnel manning the station noticed that the truck was running unusually slow and low to the pavement. Police and DENR personnel then discovered that the van was not carrying the usual tires but logs without proper documents.
Vicente Cembrano, the community environment and natural resources officer in this town, said that henceforth, they will be closely watching vehicles that could be carrying contraband forest products.
“We suspect that this kind of operation has been going on for several months now. They are trying to find new ways to transport illegally obtained logs,” he said.
Cembrano noted that nobody would suspect logs to be carried through the bus company’s tire van. “This is the first time such kind of operation was caught here in Caraga region,” he added.
Investigators found out that the log were transported from Butuan City to be delivered to Cagayan de Oro City. Authorities are still trying to find out who was behind the shipment of logs and the person whom it was supposed to be delivered.
The Bachelor Express management in Butuan City has refused several times to shed light on the matter.
The DENR is planning to file charges to whomever it will find responsible for transporting the Narra slabs. (Erwin Mascarinas / MindaNews)
