BONTOC, Mountain Province – Combined police and military personnel continue to gain headway in their unrelenting and uncompromising anti-illegal logging campaign in the different parts of the province to sustain the efforts to help preserve and protect the state of the environment pursuant to marching orders from higher authorities.
Senior Superintendent Allen S. Ocden, provincial director of the Mountain Province Police Office, said that last month, combined police and military personnel were able to conduct three separate anti-illegal logging operations wherein a total of 427 pieces of lumber in different sizes were confiscated by the government forces in three different sites in the province.
“We have to sustain our aggressive anti-illegal logging operations provincewide because we want to preserve and protect our environment for the benefit of the present and future generations. We do not want our children and our children’s children to suffer the consequences of our failure to preserve and protect our environment. We want the future generations to enjoy the beauty of having a well maintained environment,” Ocden stressed.
In barangay Palitod, Paracelis, Mountain Province, police personnel of the Mountain Province Police office and the 77th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army were able to recover some 20 pieces of lumber covered with canvass near a cornfield wherein it had a total of 376.64 board feet having a market value of P14,728.
Subsequently, combined police and military personnel were also able to recover some 7 pieces of assorted lumber with a total volume of 196 board feet with a market value of P7,840 at sitio Fiakingey, Mangnao, Saliok, Natonin, Mountain province in a separate anti-illegal logging operation in the said placed.
Ocden claimed that the biggest haul was achieved by the police and military in sitio Gonggongo, Balintaugan, Bauko, Mountain province where some 400 pieces of assorted lumber having a volume of over 2,000 board feet with a market value of P60,000.
According to him, the confiscated assorted lumber were brought to the concerned police offices for inventory and custody while manhunt operations are being conducted against those who were instrumental in the felling of the trees that were made into assorted lumber for them to face the appropriate charges that will be filed against them by the law enforcers.
The police official issued a stern warning against individuals who continue to be involved in illegal logging activities in the different parts of the province that law enforcers will intensify their anti-illegal logging operations and that they will not succumb to whatever pressure or influence that will be used by them to evade the charges against them, saying that the preservation and protection of the environment is one of the priority concerns of the present administration which must be given utmost importance in their enforcement operations.
Ocden underscored that Mountain Province is one of the forested areas in the country that is why it is important for the local officials and residents to ensure the preservation and protection of the environment because it is the one that provides thee scenery being frequented by foreign and domestic visitors that will be able to contribute in improving the economic activities and the living condition of the people.
By HENT
