Butuan City solon Rep. Leovigildo "Boy" B. Banaag, chairperson of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, also said that the committee will file charges against the shipping line if found guilty.
Banaag ordered the congressional investigation following the report of Benjamin Tumaliuan, regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Caraga about the series of apprehensions made by his Anti-illegal Logging Task Force of more than 20,000 board feet of illegally-cut flitches and lumber allegedly concealed in containerized vans of a shipping line in Nasipit, Agusan del Norte.
In a conference with the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, Tumaliuan, Agusan del Norte Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer (PENRO) Rosendo A. Asunto and Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO) Achilles C. Ebron, said the first apprehension of some 9,718.34 board feet of freshly-cut lumber of mixed dipterocarp species took place when their task force opened a containerized van registered under a shipping line at the Nasipit International Port last November 16.
The shipment was about to be brought to Cebu when the team arrived.
Marco Roy Alejaga said the contents of the container van were declared as corn grits. It had no clear shipper and consignee.
The team reported that the driver of a ten-wheeler truck carrying the containerized van allegedly run over the road sign of the DENR Monitoring station at the Tabon-Tabon area.
"The team leader of the Tabon Tabon station informed Tumaliuan, who also immediately alerted the personnel of CENRO Butuan and Nasipit port to be on the lookout for the said vehicle, which led to interception. The truck was eventually intercepted by pursuing foresters at the yard of the shipping line at Nasipit Port," they said.
On December 1, the task force also apprehended another containerized van of the shipping line allegedly loaded with some 9,118 board feet of illegally-cut lauan lumber and flitches. The cargo was to be declared corn grits, with no clear shipper and consignee. Shipping personnel at the Nasipit port did not give any comment when asked by the Manila Bulletin.
After these two incidents, the DENR asked for the assistance of the Bureau of Customs (BoC), Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in opening the containerized vans.
Even as Banaag expressed his skepticism over this reported laxity of other government agencies, the solon commended the DENR Caraga for thwarting timber smuggling in the region. He also asked forestry officials to file charges against the culprits of violation of the Forestry Code of the Philippines.
Loreto CENRO Eddie Bacomo and Taclocogon CENRO Juvencio Munoz also apprehended some 712 pieces of illegally-cut/towed logs along Agusan river. No one came out to claim ownership of the hoard.
