Duterte orders DENR to suspend illegal logging firms

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to suspend illegal logging operations in Zamboanga Peninsula following reports and images of the massive forest denudation in the region.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte came to this decision during the Cabinet meeting on Monday.

“The President also ordered several logging concessions in Zamboanga Peninsula to be suspended. This after he was apprised of concerns of indigenous populations that they have been displaced by logging operations of some companies,” Roque said in a press briefing.

“And also observed that it is widespread logging that is responsible for the flashfloods that Mindanao experienced only this month of December with two typhoons,” Roque added.

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said in a Facebook post that Duterte was “angry” when he instructed Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu after he watched a five-minute video presentation of the “deforested” portion of the Zamboanga mountain range.

Authorities blamed heavy flooding after the height of typhoons Urduja and Vinta on the destruction of forests, particularly in Zamboanga peninsula.

Duterte’s order came out to suspend the contracts of at least two logging companies.

Piñol named Sodaco Agricultural Corp. as one of the firms, which supposedly got a 60,000-hectare permit from the DENR in 2006.

“Agriculture and fisheries were adversely affected by the flooding and landslides. Even if you have the ISF (integrated social forestry) license, it does not give you the right to cut down trees for commercial purposes. They made the ISF as an excuse to conduct logging operations,” Piñol told reporters.

DENR regional director Felix Mirasol Jr. confirmed the suspension order on Sodaco and sister company Sirawai Plywood & Lumber Corp. (SPLC) in Sibuco, which is under the Dacon Group of Companies (DGC) and mother company DMCI, for the breach in their Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) with the government.

Cimatu said that he assigned DENR investigators in the province and vowed to conduct an “exhaustive” investigation to see if there are violations in the permits.

Cimatu added they created a 12-member team consisting of local DENR officers from the forestry, mines and environment bureaus to look into possible offenses in the operations of Sodaco and SPLC.

The DENR has issued five IFMAs to the two firms with a combined area of 70,709 hectares, covering 12 towns crossing the boundaries of Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur.