Log Smugglers Aiding, Arming NPA Rebels in Caraga, Execs Admit

Patin-ay, PROSPERIDAD, AGUSAN DEL SUR- Apart from not paying right taxes due to government, illegal logging, mining and log poaching including mineral ores smuggling activities were undermining for so long now government’s anti-insurgency campaign in Caraga Region, civilian and military officials admitted.

At the news conference here held after distribution rites of cash assistance and livelihood packages to former New People’s Army rebels, Agusan del Sur Vice Governor Santiago Cane, Jr. admitted that based on the intelligence community official report some illegal logging operators who smuggled huge volumes of illegally cut logs out of the province were allegedly giving high powered firearms and ammunitions to the insurgents.

“This is to protect their illegal logging activities as they smuggled out of the province illegally cut logs including the documented ones but whose permits were doctored in cahoots allegedly by some unscrupulous DENR personnel, “ admitted government, military officials including some former NPA rebels themselves at the recently concluded Social Integration Program workshop training for the former rebels here.

“Yes, we admit based on intelligence reports that illegal logging undermines government efforts on anti-insurgency as log smugglers are giving firearms and ammunitions to the rebels but the provincial government is doing its best to stop all these”, Vice Governor Cane in the news conference said.

Reports claimed that illegal logging including smuggling of mineral ores such as gold do not only undermine anti-insurgency and social integration efforts of the government but is sabotaging economically Philippine Government because huge volumes of cut logs, mineral ores that were shipped out have not paid due to much needed revenues to the government.

Cane said the Agusan del Sur Provincial Government have recently cut the number of forest product monitoring stations or checkpoints that are sometimes called “cash points” to avoid corruption and to make it a genuine composite, all-government checkpoints that are lean and mean.

Cane said the provincial government has drawn up mechanisms in cooperation with enlightened DENR personnel in the inspection of transported logs saying some were inserted with undocumented logs or banned hard wood while some were under declared by volumes saying some transport permits were fictitious.

Legitimate wood traders on the other hand complained NPA rebels especially those operating in the hinterlands are demanding cash money sometimes firearms and ammunitions from them if they wanted their log products be shipped out of the area and will reached different wood processing plants in Butuan City and other urban areas where wood processing plants are present.

Military and police authorities have long been accusing the New People’s Army to have been engaging and protecting illegal logging activities in the region.

But the New People’s Army denied the accusations and accused instead some military and police personnel themselves to have engaged in illegal logging and mining activities

The government is collecting annually some P120-M to P150-M representing revenues from logging activities in the region as the local DENR and COA report claimed it could have collected more had it not been to log smuggling. Caraga Region’s economy apart from agriculture is largely based to logging and mining industry.

Yesterday (November some forty four former NPA rebels received cash assistance each ranging from P50,000 each for every M-16 armalite rifles surrendered to as low as P2,000 each for every .38 cal pistol paltik surrendered

Under OPAPP’s Social Integration Program, the cash assistance of every M-16 armalite rifles surrendered have been increased from P18,000 each last year to P50,000.00 since March this year.

OPAPP Secretary Hermogenes Esperon personally distributed yesterday other goodies and checks representing cash assistance to the 44 former NPA rebels who decided to return to the mainstream of the society.