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LUCENA CITY, Quezon ? Illegal logging thrives with impunity in Sierra Madre during Christmas and election season, a leader of a mountain tribe revealed.
?Election and Christmas are the busiest seasons for illegal logging operators in Sierra Madre, particularly in the mountains of General Nakar, Quezon. During these periods, the noise of power chain saws can be heard across the mountain with alarming regularity day and night,? Nap Buendicho, Agta tribe ?governor? told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.
The tribe leader described the election and Yuletide logging season as period of ?gang-rape? of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges.
?The illegal loggers need more money to satisfy the greed of corrupt government men for their annual Christmas expenses. And with the coming election, these forest rapists have to work day and night to provide campaign fund for their backers and protectors, mostly corrupt politicians,? Buendicho said.
He said the tribe can?t help but observed that during election season, there are two faces of politicians in the issue of Sierra Madre.
?One type is the pseudo environmentalist who professes to champion the cause of Sierra Madre protection and rehabilitation but after the election, all were forgotten. The other one and the most devilish is the financier and protector of illegal loggers,? he said.
He said the recent heavy rainfalls brought by successive typhoons also work in favor of the forest destroyers for it speedS up the transport of fallen timbers through the Umiray River until it reach the river delta facing the Pacific Ocean.
Some of the illegally cut logs will be shipped out to Mauban, Quezon or Dingalan in Aurora province, Buendicho said.
?Other hot logs continue to exit through Tanay, Rizal and in the most recent avenue, the Marikina-Infanta road project,? he said.
Last month, operatives from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) intercepted a truckload of hot logs being smuggled out of Sierra Madre through the Marikina-Infanta road project which stretches from the Sumulong Highway in the provinces of Rizal and Laguna up to Infanta town in Quezon province.
Buendicho leads some 100 tribe members in the ongoing 148-kilometer anti-Laiban dam Quezon-to-Malacañang protest march which started in General Nakar last Wednesday and being participated in by close to 200 hikers composed of farmers, religious people, and non-government organizations.
?Our protest march is not only against the construction of the Laiban dam. What we are also demanding is for the government to stop the widespread logging in the Sierra Madre,? he said.
Earlier, Fr. Pete Montallana, chair of Task Force Sierra Madre, a Church-based forest watchdog, said illegal logging operations have never stopped in northern Quezon.
The priest blamed the corruption in the DENR as the culprit.
Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona, Prelature of Infanta, also pointed to the DENR corruption as the cause of the non-stop logging in Sierra Madre.
In earlier interview, Nilo Tamoria, head of DENR-Calabarzon, denied that corruption in the government agency is the cause of rampant illegal logging in Sierra Madre.
He urged the general public to provide them with information on illegal forest activities in their areas.
?We need all available information so that we can immediately respond,? Tamoria said.
