TUBLAY, Benguet – A 21-year old man was arrested by combined police operatives after he was caught red handed transporting some four hundred pieces of illegally sawn lumber following a brief chase at Ambassador, here, Friday dawn.
Police authorities identified the arrested individual as Rheygan Bongkili Sote, 21, and a resident of Caliking, Atok, Benguet.
Personnel of the Tublay Municipal Station were conducting border patrol at Km. 20, barangay Ambassador when they tried to flag down a truck but the driver reportedly did not stop and sped off.
After traveling for a few hundred meters, he suddenly stopped the vehicle and left the same long the side of the road.
The patrolling police operatives chased the fleeing individual using their mobile patrol car until they were able to collar him along the Labey-Lacamen provincial road.
During the inspection of the truck, probers discovered some 400 pieces of illegally sawn lumber but the driver was not able to present any permit to transport the same supposedly issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) when he was asked to do so.
The seized illegally sawn lumber measuring 2x3x10 each had a total volume of approximately 2,000 board feet with a market value of more than P104,000.
The arrested individual was brought to the Tublay Municipal Police Station for documentation and for the filing of the charges for violation of the pertinent provisions of Presidential Decree (PD) 705 or the Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines against him before the provincial prosecutor’s office while the seized illegally sawn lumber and the vehicle used in the said transport were brought to the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Pacdal, Baguio City for safekeeping.
With the successful operation, local police vowed to intensify their campaign against the transport of illegally sawn lumber with the conduct of enhanced foot and mobile patrol within the area of jurisdiction of the police force to be able to contain such illegal activity that has a significant impact on the state of the environment not only in the province but also in the whole region.
The Baguio-Bontoc-Banaue road otherwise known as the Halsema highway is the major road network linking Baguio and the central Cordillera that is why it is the major route leading to the northern towns of Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao.
Probers are still conducting an investigation on where will be the illegally sawn lumber be delivered to ensure that appropriate followup operations could be done to prevent the further transport of illegally sawn lumber inside and outside the province as the same will be detrimental in the ongoing efforts of concerned government agencies and the local governments to preserve and protect the current state of the environment for the same to be able to be passed on to future generations of inhabitants.
