TAGBILARAN CITY, March 24 (PIA)—By operation of law, the government forfeits a motorboat and over a thousand board feet of iron wood, considered among the hardest hardwood in the country, apparently illegally shipped from the only place where these species thrive in Surigao.
Environment authorities also filed illegal possession and transport of prime rare hardwood, on an undocumented and motorboat overloaded with the hot lumber.
Acting on intelligence reports, elements of the Philippine Coast Guard assigned in Panglao led by Seaman 1 Ralph Barajan intercepted an undocumented motorized banca loaded with 81 pieces of hewn magkono (mancono) Xanthostemon verdugonianus (Naves), March 13, 2016.
The lumber is considered by foresters as the hardest of all Philippine hardwoods, considered rare and sparsely distributed, the species can be seen mostly in the so-called “magkono triangle.”
This is an area in the country formed by the Dinagat Island in Surigao mainland, Homonhon Island in Eastern Samar, and a very small area in Babatngon, Leyte.
The PCG team led by Barajan and comprised of seamen Wilfredo Jubac, Dionevic Flores and Gian Carl Buenaobra boarded the boat, and finding possible illegal cargo, arrested its five crewmembers.
The PCG found the crew incapable of showing documents of the shipped lumber, and the boat.
The PCG team tagged along a Philippine Navy and Philippine Army back-up.
Upon the arrest of boat captain Lolito Tiu (42), Rulie Orcullo (30), Jade Villamor (28), Jundel Dizon (24) and Jerryboy Flores (22), the arresting team escorted the suspects to the local Department of Environment and Natural Resources office in Cortes.
In Cortes DENR Office, authorities made a proper inventory of cargo and disposition of the arrested personalities and their undocumented boat used in the apparent criminal activity.
In the inventory were 81 pieces of hewn mancono lumber of assorted measurements with a total volume reaching 1,836.98 board feet equivalent to 4.33 cubic meters.
Also forfeited for the government as the law prescribes, is a white and blue motorized banca, a bolo, a chisel, DENR records show.
Subsequent information revealed that the DENR in Bohol has filed appropriate charges, through Assistant Provincial prosecutor Aida Digaum-Langcamon.
The suspects are now detained at the Panglao Police Station, since the boarding incident happened in the Panglao police area of jurisdiction.
In matters like this, what does the laws say?
In the Philippines, as early as 1904, via Act No 1148, authorities have regulated the use of public forests and has classified the mancono as among the group of hardwood trees in the country including acle, baticulin, betis, camagon, ebony, ipil, lanete, molave, narra, tindalo, and yacal.
As such, former Bohol PENRO Nestor Canda says a tree cutting permit is needed prior to cutting, the permit among the papers needed as a DENR requirement for the person getting the transport permit.
Section 68 of Presidential Decree 705 says cutting, gathering and or collecting timber or other products without license shall be guilty of qualified theft as defined and punished under Articles 309 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code.
In its primer, the DENR Forest Management Bureau said even possession of lumber or forest products without documents under existing forest laws and regulations is already a violation.
In fact, even the removing of the timber and other products from the forest needs a license agreement or permit issued by either the DENR secretary or his representative, in this case, the PENRO of the area where the timber was cut.
The DENR permit can either be in the form of timber license agreement, timber production sharing agreement, private land timber permits or special permits as the agency deems necessary.
For transporting forest products, the DENR lists the following documents necessary to make the transport legal: Certificate of Timber Origin, Auxiliary invoices, sales or commercial invoices, logs supply contract, Forestry Officer’s mark, and Certificate of Transport Agreement. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
