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TUGUEGARAO CITY: Environment agents and police seized narra flitches with an estimated value of P1.26 million on Monday at the Cagayan Valley Product Monitoring Station checkpoint in Calitlitan, Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 2 said.
Regional Executive Director Gwendolyn Bambalan of the DENR-2 said in a news briefing that the forest protection team flagged down on September 26 a Fuso Canter closed van (CAJ 6107) loaded with 104 pieces of narra flitches with an approximate volume of 2,520.75 board feet.
Rommel Mercado, a 37-year-old driver from San Miguel, Bulacan, said the lumber came from Bulanao, Tabuk, Kalinga.
Mercado and his helper, Warwin Cruz, were held under police custody in Aritao while charges were being readied.
“After the consecutive apprehension, the Enforcement Division of the DENR Regional Office has been more vigilant and alerting the forest protection officers assigned at the 26 mobile and stationary checkpoints within the north and south exits of the Cagayan Valley region,” Bambalan said.
Bambalan earlier ordered in a recent regional management conference for stringent forest protection and law enforcement convergence initiatives along Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Cordillera regions.
Multisectoral agents earlier seized an accumulated P5 million worth of illegal logs in Nueva Vizcaya on September 12 and 14.
The seizures are part of the implementation of Section 68 of Presidential Decree 705 known as the “Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines” as amended by Executive Order 277.
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