The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Central Luzon recently conducted an anti-illegal logging operation in Bulacan that resulted in the confiscation of 22,000 board feet of illegally sourced lumber in a lumberyard in the town of Baliuag. The seized lumber worth Php 1.2 million consisted of premium species mostly Dipterocarps.

In a separate operation, combined operatives of the National Bureau (NBI) environmental crime division and the DENR, confiscated 56,000 board feet of illegally sourced lumber of premium hardwood species worth Php3.2 million in a warehouse allegedly owned by a certain Ricky Yu. The wood species include narra, kamagong, tindalo, tanguile, yakal, mayapis and Benguet pine.

The DENR and NBI are now filing charges against Yu and his four Filipino accomplices identified as Andy Binos, Roberto Bonaobra, Ernesto Vasquez Jr., and Jerry Belgica for violating forestry laws. If found guilty, they may face a maximum of 20 years imprisonment.

The crackdown on illegal logging activities also led to a series of raids on establishments selling hot lumber including those located in a village in Guagua town in Pampanga. ###