PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — Some 11,700 board feet of suspected illegally cut logs were confiscated here within the protected Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park (PPSRNP).
Park Superintendent Elizabeth Maclang said Monday morning that the “hot logs” were initially discovered on February 2 “in plain view” at Sitio Santo Niño, Barangay New Panggangan.
On February 8, a team composed of park rangers, Philippines Marines, and personnel from the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO), confiscated them from the possession of Filipina resort developer Elvira Beckett.
“We saw them in plain view, and we were told they were from barangays Caruray and Old Panggangan. But we also suspect, many were cut from the forest of New Panggangan,” she told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
They were assorted species of Nato, Ipil, and Kamagong tree said to have an estimated value of PHP1 million.
“The value of the illegally cut logs is small in comparison to the environmental damage the illegal logging caused, which is five to six million pesos. The case that should be filed against the person from whom they were confiscated should really be a criminal case,” Maclang added.
The PPSRNP, home to the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR), covers approximately 22,202 hectares (54,860 acres) of protected land.
Beckett, who is said to be married to a British national, is allegedly in the process of developing a resort in New Panggangan.
“She has structures on her property already, and we’re still trying to find out if she has permits and documents to prove the construction is legal,” she stated.
Becket reportedly owns a resort, also in Port Barton, San Vicente, and operates several large vessels.
Local Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) chief Felizardo Cayatoc said Beckett’s resort construction in New Panggangan does not seem to have the authority of the Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) of the PPSRNP.
“I am currently verifying the classification or the status of the land where she is building her resort – is it alienable and disposable or timberland. It seems, too, that her resort project did not pass through the PAMB,” he said.
He said a team he sent on February 11 also discovered that some illegally cut logs were buried under the sand.
“The team said some lumbers were hidden under the sand. I’m finding out where she got her permit because they said she’s not afraid as she has a permit,” he stated.
But Cayatoc doubts this since Executive Order 23 issued by Malacañang in February 2011, strictly imposes the moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in natural and residual forests.
Cayatoc said they believe that Beckett’s modus operandi is for her sources to make the delivery of the suspected illegally cut logs at night.
He said charges of violation of Section 77 of Presidential Decree 705 or the Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines might be filed against Beckett.
“This will just be regularly filed, but she will be given due process to explain how she had come to be in the possession of these suspected illegally cut logs,” Cayatoc stated. (Celeste Anna Formoso/PNA)
