DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 7, 2013) – Patrolling government troops have seized two truckloads on illegally cut timbers in the southern Philippine province of Davao Oriental, officials said on Wednesday.
Officials said the soldiers, belonging to the 67th Infantry Battalion, confiscated the lumber after the truck drivers failed to show any permits to transport the logs in the village of Taytayan in Cateel town.
The timbers were handed over the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the province.
DENR regional director Joselin Marcus Fragada said from January to July this year, authorities have conducted 60 apprehensions and seizure of illegal lumber and 8 cases had been in courts against suspected illegal loggers.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz, chief of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said they will continue supporting the government in the anti-illegal campaign in southern Philippines.
“We are supporting the national government in its environmental protection program,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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