{"id":278466,"date":"2020-12-13T08:37:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T13:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=278466"},"modified":"2020-12-13T08:37:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T13:37:40","slug":"cimatu-wants-tree-cutting-activities-in-cotabato-monitored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/13\/cimatu-wants-tree-cutting-activities-in-cotabato-monitored\/","title":{"rendered":"Cimatu wants tree-cutting activities in Cotabato monitored"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu sees the need for a law that would make manufacturers pay up for their share in polluting the environment. (Photo<\/a>: Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong> \u2013 Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu on Sunday called for intensified monitoring of tree-cutting activities in the same area where authorities recently discovered a small-scale illegal mining operation in Magpet town, Cotabato province.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow people to further destroy our forests especially when we know that flooding is among its direct consequences,\u201d Cimatu said in a press release. \u201cMany Filipinos have suffered enough from the devastation of massive flooding because of forest denudation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cimatu said the local government of Magpet should always be on the lookout for any illegal tree-cutting activity in its area of jurisdiction and coordinate such activity with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region 12 (Soccsksargen).<\/p>\n

According to DENR-12 regional executive director Felix Alicer, the tree-cutting activity was discovered during a Dec. 7 raid conducted in Barangay Don Panaca by operatives of the DENR, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the local government of Cotabato, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

The joint operation team then discovered an illegal small-scale mining operation in the area located some 10 kilometers away from the Mt. Apo Natural Park.<\/p>\n

The mining site has not been declared a \u201cminahang bayan\u201d or a common area where small-scale miners are allowed to operate, prompting Cimatu to order its immediate closure.<\/p>\n

The operation also led authorities to a five-hectare area that has been cleared of trees, around 300 meters away from the mining site.<\/p>\n

The felled trees were identified as Ulian and Agoho. Some 15.296 cubic meters of log were also seen at the site.<\/p>\n

Alicer said the \u201ccleared area\u201d is suspected to be intended for land conversion, particularly as a banana plantation, considering that the vicinity of Barangay Don Panaca is within a banana-growing town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing here is that the threat to denudation is not so much on timber poaching but land conversion,\u201d Alicer said. \u201cA banana plantation has higher economic benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alicer noted that barangay officials in the area are not empowered to apprehend the suspects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe barangay chiefs around the area, however, have helped us monitor the site which prevented the suspected planned land conversion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alicer said they have not yet been able to remove the logs from the site because it can only be reached after a two-and-a-half hour-walk through rugged terrain. (PR)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu on Sunday called for intensified monitoring of tree-cutting activities in the same area …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":152709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278466"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278468,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278466\/revisions\/278468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}