Lumber confiscated in Lingayen, 3 crews held

By Mar T. Supnad

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan- Police recently confiscated a truckload of illegally-cut logs and held its three crew, including the driver, for questioning, after the truck was stopped at a checkpoint here in Barangay Baay.

Supt. Harris Fama, chief of police, said his men led by Chief Insp. Larry Toledo were manning the highway checkpoint when the truck with plate RBA-482 driven by Randy Busog passed by.

As the policemen checked the truck, they found out this was fully loaded with various sizes of logs composed of tanguile, tiaong, guijo, mayapis,palosapis, lauan, dugoan and arnato totaling more or less 2,000 board feet.

Toledo immediately confiscated the logs after the driver and his two unidentified helpers failed to show permits for the logs.

Fama informed Mayor Jonas Castaneda and Chief Supt. Ramon Gatan, Region 1 police director, the logs came from Turod, Luna, Apayao, a remote town in Cordillera.

Fama said the logs were supposed to be delivered to a buyer in Poblacion, Tayug, Pangasinan but the truck went to Lingayen which is very far from Tayug, raising suspicion that the crew were probably looking for a buyer.

The apprehension of the logs came after Gatan issued an order to his men in the four provinces of Region 1 composed of Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte and La Union not to tolerate illegal logging in their areas.

He warned his men not to coddlle illegal loggers or face stiff repercussions. Gatan cited Fama and his men for their alertness that resulted to the confiscation of the illegally cut logs and the apprehension of the suspects.