Illegal logging in E. Visayas dismays DENR exec

TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Executive Director for Eastern Visayas is warning Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officers (PENROs) and Community Environment and Natural Resources Officers (CENROs) for failing to curb illegal logging in Leyte and Samar.

Director Crizaldy Barcelo said he was dismayed to discover that illegal logging is still rampant in Leyte, Biliran and Samar provinces and that DENR personnel there were doing nothing to stop it.

Barcelo said he found that freshly cut lumber were made into furniture in Samar but the CENRO officer there reported no illegal lumber cutting in his area.

He said he will impose sanctions on officials and personnel who do not carry out the mandate of their office.

"Their report is negative but when I went to Marabut, I personally saw for myself the freshly cut lumber used in making furnitures," Barcelo told newsmen.

He did not spell out the sanctions he will carry out against erring PENRO and CENRO officers.

He said since the PENRO and CENRO are not doing their function, he will as well organize a Regional Task Force from the DENR regional office to run after illegal loggers in Leyte and Samar.

Barcelo said he is not accepting the explanation of the PENRO and CENRO officers that the lumber used in making furniture were from trees damaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda that struck Leyte and Samar almost five years ago.

He said a town official in Leyte allegedly involved in the rampant cutting of trees in his municipality is being monitored.