Court orders 5 illegal loggers to plant trees

By Charlie Lagasca

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya  – Five persons who pleaded guilty to illegal logging here were ordered to plant between 3,000 to 1,000 trees each in government reforestation areas. 

Judge Rogelio Corpuz of Bayombong Regional Trial Court Branch 27 also ordered Inocencio Mangasep, Marlon Pataray, Reynaldo de la Cruz, SimplicioBosalpa Jr. and Raffy Perry to nurture the seedlings they planted for at least three years.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources filed charges against the five for violating forestry laws.

Bosalpa and Perry were ordered to plant 3,000 forest and fruit trees each along a six-hectare plot in Singian Hill, Bagabag town under the supervision of the DENR’s community environment and natural resources office.

The two were found guilty of violating the Anti-Illegal Logging Law for transporting around 10,000 board feet of illegally cut lumber on March 15, 2011.

Mangasep, Pataray and De la Cruz were found guilty of cutting trees in a government reforestation site with an unlicensed chainsaw in Quezon town’s Runruno village on May 31, 2010.