By Liam Anacleto
CABANATUAN
CITY – At least 20 individuals have been financing illegal logging
operations in Nueva Ecija, where there are at least six identified hotspots,
according to Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Leovino
Ignacio, DENR provincial environment and natural resources officer, said the
“logging capitalists” are the ones providing logistical support to illegal
loggers in hauling forest products from the mountains to buyers in the
lowlands.
“By
our count, there are at least 20 of them operating in four towns, or five
capitalists per town,” Ignacio said.
The
DENR has identified the towns of Bongabon, Carranglan, Gabaldon, Gen. Tinio,
Laur and Pantabangan as illegal logging hotspots.
Ignacio
said the financiers normally provide an allowance – an average of P15,000 – to
each of the illegal loggers before they go to the mountains to fell trees. The
illegal loggers leave this money with their families before they go
logging for at least one month.
These
financiers are working in cahoots with syndicates believed to be behind the
twin assassination attempts on a forest ranger last May and June.
Ignacio
said forest ranger Edgardo de Luna has been transferred to Cagayan Valley under
heavy security upon orders of DENR Secretary Ramon Paje and upon the
recommendation of DENR regional executive director Maximo Dichoso.
De
Luna, 49, of Barangay Bantug Bulalo here, was shot in the back of the neck by
motorcycle-riding men last June 14 while on his way home on board his
motorcycle.
It
was the second slay attempt on De Luna who was also attacked by a lone gunman
last May 23 while aboard a passenger jeep in Barangay Bitas this city.
Ignacio
said De Luna angered members of the syndicate operating in Bongabon town
following a series of successful anti-illegal logging operations there.
“This
is a big syndicate,” he said, adding many were hurt by the DENR’s campaign
against illegal logging of which De Luna is in the forefront, particularly in
Bongabon.
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