DENR to give DepEd wood for school buildings

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will be donating at least P10 million worth of confiscated wood products to the Department of Education (DepEd) for the construction of school buildings, chairs, desks, and other school facilities. At his first press conference, DENR Secretary Ramon Paje said around 800,000 board feet of confiscated wood— mostly logs, lumber, and flitches— will be donated to the DepEd as part of Aquino administration’s fight against graft. Paje explains the wood products were seized as part of the agency's anti-illegal logging drive. The wood products were either abandoned by illegal loggers or granted to the DENR by the courts. “The logs will no longer be turned over to the Natural Resources Development Corporation (NRDC) for public bidding. Instead, we will be donating all confiscated forest products to DepEd for the manufacture of our children’s desks and chairs. Wala ng batang mag-aaral na walang upuan at desk," Paje adds. NRDC is the corporate arm of the DENR tasked to undertake the bidding or disposal of confiscated forest products. Paje says the DENR is now formulating the mechanics for the turnover of the wood to the DepEd. He says the move was part of the administration’s policy to end alleged shady practices within the agency whereby financiers of illegal logging operations would bid for the confiscated logs and sell them for profit. “Cleaning the bureaucratic process in the department that engender graft is one of my marching orders to all senior officials here," he says, adding that the "bidding playground" for seized wood products would no longer exist. Meanwhile, the DENR also gave its regional officers 30 days to stop illegal logging activities in their respective areas. Paje says after 30 days, all anti-illegal logging task forces in the regional offices will be dissolved to give way to the new group to be handled by retired Brigadier General Danilo Lim. “This will give us enough time to prepare and create a new task force by accessing the resources of the Department of National Defense. We need a task force that has a muscle," Paje explains. –VVP, GMANews.TV