Mike U. CrismundoManila Bulletin Online
The notice to suspend operations issued by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Regional Executive Director Benjamin T. Tumaliuan to wood processing plants in Northeastern Mindanao, including those in the cities of Butuan, Bislig, and Surigao, also warned of "revocation" of permits if they could not categorically present a "sustainable development program, sources of logs, and wood supply contracts from tree plantation owners and tree farmers."
The suspension of wood processing operations in Northeastern Mindanao prompted the Caraga Regional Development Council to call an emergency meeting yesterday.
The RDC officials led by Butuan City Mayor Democrito "Big Boy" Plaza, chairman of the Caraga RDC and vice chairman of Mindanao RDC, tackled the problem of what to do with the thousands of workers who would be left without a source of livelihood by the suspension of wood processing operations in the region.
The suspension affected some 23,000 families and could force 95,000 children in the Caraga region to stop schooling, the RDC officials said. Some 10,000 families with close to 50,000 children in Misamis and Cagayan de Oro would also be affected, they added.
The RDC is drawing up plans to provide alternative livelihood for the displaced workers while preparing a position paper to President Arroyo calling for the lifting the log ban in Mindanao, particularly in the Caraga region. Most of the wood requirements in the country come from this region.
The suspension follows the order of Environment Secretary Michael T. Defensor in December of last year to suspend all harvesting of timber in the region. The order affected all logging concessions and agreements, including those covered by Community-based Forest Management (CBFM), Integrated Social Forestry (ISF), Timber License Agreement (TLA), Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA), and Social Integrated Forest Management Agreement (SIFMA).
Last month, Defensor also ordered the closing of sawmills and wood processing plants without identified sources of logs and wood supply contracts.
In his notice to suspend sawmill operations, Tumaliuan said wood processing plants can "request for an authority to mill once they have sufficient imported logs and log supply agreements with tree farmers duly and actually verified by the DENR technical working group."
Cutting or transport documents must be also be duly recorded using the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) block system or Geographical Positioning System (GPS).
In a related development, the anti-illegal logging drive in six identified "hot spots" in Loreto, Agusan del Sur, has resulted in the apprehension of 6,799 pieces of wood of mixed dipterocarp, lanipao, and miscellaneous species by a joint task force composed of local government units, DENR, police, the military and environment groups.
CENR Officer Eddie Bacomo said the confiscated illegally cut logs and flitches were found in Liloan, Manawe, Sto. Tomas, San Vicente, Johnson, Ihaon river, Nueva Gracia, and Agusan river
