DENR taps villagers in fight vs Sierra Madre illegal loggers

THE Cagayan Valley Regional Environmental Law Enforcement Council (RELEC) will mobilize residents in illegal logging hot spots within the Sierra Madre ranges as “bantay bakir,” or forest protection officers.

One of the strategies agreed upon by the council composed of law-enforcement agencies, religious and media sectors during their virtual meeting on April 13, was the plan to organize “Barangay Bantay Kalikasan” in all identified sources of timber poachers in coordination with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), according to RELEC Enforcement Chief Joel Daquioag of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

To encourage community help and support, regular meetings with village chiefs and intensified information, education and communication activities among local communities within the identified recurring hot spots will be conducted.

Daquioag identified the recurring hot spots in the municipalities of Pamplona, Sta. Ana, Lal-lo, Baggao and Peñablanca in Cagayan; San Pablo, Tumauni, San Mariano and Palanan in Isabela; and Nagtipunan and Diffun in Quirino.

DENR Regional Executive Director Gwendolyn Bambalan, concurrent chairman of RELEC, has earlier called for an aggressive stance by the council on forest protection.

“We have to cut the route from the source to the market. We need to stop the cutting at source,” Director Bambalan said in a news statement. The highest DENR official in the Cagayan Valley Region underscored Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu’s order to strengthen surveillance operation to prevent the cutting of trees rather than apprehending or confiscating dead trees in the form of cut lumbers.

The regional environment chief also requested the uniformed officials who took part in the virtual meeting to prepare their respective tactical operational plans against destructive environmental activities.

As a strategy, the DENR will closely coordinate with the Philippine Army based in identified sources, routes and outlets of timber poachers. It will also monitor activities of suspected financers of timber smuggling and conduct counter surveillance with the assistance of the Philippine National Police (PNP).