Isabela gov, mayor at loggerheads over logs

ILAGAN, Isabela – The province’s governor and mayor of this capital town are now at loggerheads over lumber salvaged by residents here after the weeklong flooding here.

Mayor Jose Mari Diaz, accompanied by policemen, apprehended last week a member of Gov. Grace Padaca’s provincial anti-illegal logging task force for allegedly illegally confiscating logs as well as driftwood salvaged by villagers here after the floods.

But Padaca, said the arrest of Ben Versola was harassment or intimidation in the wake of the provincial government’s all-out war against indiscriminate cutting of trees here.

Diaz said he earlier received reports from his men in Barangay Santa Isabel that Padaca’s task force operatives led by Versola were forcibly confiscating lumber from his constituents, including driftwood swept away by the floods.

For this, Diaz reportedly ordered the police to stop Versola from conducting the “illegal” confiscation.

“I pleaded with him to spare my constituents even only their driftwood, since it was just a small amount of wood. But he (Versola) was adamant,” Diaz said, adding Versola had already loaded the logs and driftwood on a truck.

Versola denied he loaded the wood on a truck, saying he only planned to talk with residents in Santa Isabel about the provincial government’s anti-illegal logging drive.

“We had just planned to talk to the residents in the area about Governor Grace’s campaign against illegal logging, but the people there must have overreacted, thinking I was set to confiscate their logs,” said Versola. “Even if the driftwood were brought about by the floods, still they were illegally sourced lumber.”

Padaca said the arrest showed certain forces behind illegal logging operations here were finding ways to stop her administration’s drive to stop continued denudation of the province’s remaining forest cover.

She said that instead of a case filed against her men for alleged usurpation of authority, local officials should assist in the implementation of the said drive in their areas.

Saying she had not been affected by death threats, Padaca said she would not allow legal cases to deter her administration’s campaign to rid the province from the age-old illegal activity.

“The governor had been deputized by DENR Secretary Lito Atienza himself with powers to confiscate illegal logs,” Paul Fernandez, Padaca’s provincial administration said.

Padaca said the existence of logs along rivers in the Sierra Madre showed that “illegal logging was still rampant” in the area.

She earlier warned some local and village officials to refrain from conniving with illegal loggers, warning them that the long arm of the law would eventually catch up on them.

“I have to do something to stop illegal logging in the province within my duty and power as governor. Don’t force me to do something (against you) or (to compel me) to bring you to court,” she said.

Padaca said illegal logging activities of forest covers here worsened the severity of the floods that recently hit the province and caused displacement of more than 30,000 families or about 100,000 individuals, with this capital town, one of the region’s worst hit areas. -- CL