Palace: Aquino ready to tangle with logging lords

(Updated 8:56 p.m.) President Benigno Aquino III is ready to tangle with politicians who may be protecting illegal logging operations, as he mulls issuing an executive order for a total log ban nationwide. Deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte made the statement Saturday as she said Aquino will show the necessary political will to back up such an executive order, amid questions about its possible impact on the economy and reports of more forest protection officers being killed in the field. “The interests of a few cannot prevail over the interests of the many. For the president, this is something that has to be done. The effects of illegal logging are no joke. When forests are denuded, we can easily see their effects," Valte said in Filipino in an interview on government-run dzRB radio. On Friday, Aquino announced that he is considering the adoption of a total log ban after visiting some areas hit by floods and landslides brought by heavy rains from a cold front. (See: Aquino mulling total log ban) Aquino said he is “thinking of a total log ban everywhere in the country" as a long-term intervention against killer floods, after receiving reports illegal logging is rampant in those places.
Valte also said the government may have to take extra efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. “I think everyone is in agreement climate change is upon us, we should exert extra effort to mitigate it. Isa ito sa effort na yan (This is one of those efforts)," she said. When asked if Aquino can show the needed political will, she said, “Opo, para ito sa nakararami (yes, this is for the sake of the majority of Filipinos)." TF Pagbabago chief: Total log ban ‘untimely’ The head of the government task force against illegal logging and mining, however, said Saturday the President’s plan to order a total log ban is “untimely", saying a better directive may be a gradual banning of logging. In an interview with reporters, retired Major General Renato Miranda, former Marine commandant and head of the Task Force Pagbabago, said a total log ban will severely affect small-time loggers, especially in Caraga region recently hit by massive floods, whose only source of living is logging. “Declaring a total log ban without offering [an] immediate source of livelihood [for farmers] now is very untimely, especially when prices of basic goods, petroleum prices [and] transportation fares are increasing," Miranda said, adding that a “gradual log ban may be more appropriate." Miranda called instead on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to strictly implement existing environmental laws, while looking for alternative sources of living for small-time loggers. The TF Pagbabago chief blamed corrupt DENR officials, as well as wood traders and their middlemen—whose names he declined to reveal—for the denudation of the forests in the region. Miranda alleged that these DENR officials, as well as unidentified officials from the Highway Patrol Group and the Land Transportation Office in the region, are being bribed by traders for their relentless logging operations to continue. Traders in turn pay tree farmers obscenely low fees for the logs they collect, Miranda said, forcing them to further cut down trees in their communities. “If only the President will personally see how poor most tree farmers are, [who] end up [being] victims of these mafia-like illegal logging activities, [he] will be thinking twice before signing [a] total log ban order," Miranda maintained. For his part, DENR Caraga regional director Leonardo Sebaluca said in a separate phone interview that subjecting key DENR officials in the region to investigations and lifestyle checks is most welcome. Killings of forest protection officers The Caraga region has witnessed several killings of DENR’s forest protection officers in the past, particularly in Surigao del Sur, with one officer claiming to have recently received death threats from a town mayor. In December last year, forest protection officer Rolando Sinday died on the spot after he was hit thrice by two motorcycle-riding gunmen while on his way home in Barangay Aniobongan in Surigao del Sur. (See: DENR: Killings of forest protection officers in Surigao Sur alarming) Sinday’s killing came a little over a month after another DENR anti-logging operative, Nelson Luna, was gunned down in the same province. Just this week, unidentified armed men also shot dead a member of Task Force Pagbabago while he was guarding confiscated timber, also in Surigao del Sur province in southern Philippines. (See: Worker guarding seized logs killed in Surigao Sur) Miranda identified the victim as Jacinto Branas, a 56-year-old forester from Bislig City. Meanwhile, another member of the task force, whose name was withheld, claimed that he received a phone call from a town mayor in the region, warning the forester not to continue anti-illegal logging operations in the mayor’s area. (See: DILG to probe 'threats' vs govt worker in anti-illegal logging drive) The DENR earlier tagged Surigao del Sur as a "hot spot" area for illegal logging activities. The department has launched a campaign called "Oplan Kalasangan" in the province to run after persons involved in illegal logging in the area. Previous administrations did not implement a total log ban nationwide, and instead ordered a halt in all logging activities in select regions Total or selective log ban? The previous Arroyo administration, for example, ordered a total ban on logging activities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Deposed President Joseph Estrada, in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), said he would implement a total log ban, but the policy never materialized. Former President Fidel Ramos, on the other hand, urged Congress also in his first SONA to identify areas where logging can be permitted under the concept of “sustainable development". During the Ramos administration, a forestry program called community-based forest management (CBFM) was declared as a national strategy through Executive Order 263. The CBFM involved equipping communities with ecological guidelines for the responsible use and protection of their forests. Various local and international groups, meanwhile, have expressed opposition to a nationwide log ban, and have instead recommended the banning of commercial logging. The environmental organization World Wide Fund for Nature, for example, said as early as 2004 that CBFM remains the best model for the Philippines, especially as indigenous tribes and local communities would still need wood for use and livelihood. The Philippine Climate Watch Alliance, meanwhile, had asked for a “total commercial log and mining ban in our natural forests, and launch massive rehabilitation and protection program using native forest species."—With Ben Serrano, Jerrie M. Abella/LBG/JV, GMANews.TV