BUTUAN CITY – The Agusan del Sur Police Provincial Office (ADSPPO) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have arrested two suspects and seized PHP190,498 worth of illegally gathered lumber and forest products in separate operations conducted Wednesday afternoon.
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency Thursday, Col. Ringo C. Zarzoso, ADSPPO director, identified the suspects as Nestor Sembrano, 53, a farmer and a resident of Esperanza town, and Ronald Barrientos, 18, a resident of Bunawan municipality.
Zarzoso said Sembrano was arrested in Barangay Bonaguit, Esperaza, where he yielded 541 board feet of lauan lumber worth PHP18,935.
Barrientos, meanwhile, was caught with 757 pieces of rattan worth PHP19,682 in Trento town, Zarzoso added.
“Assorted lumber products illegally-gathered in different towns in Agusan del Sur were also confiscated on Wednesday. The suspects involved in these illegal logging activities remain at large,” the police official said.
Meanwhile, Zarzoso said separate operations conducted on Wednesday in the towns of Bunawan, La Paz, Loreto, San Francisco, San Luis, Sibagat, Talacogon, Veruela, and Bayugan City resulted in the confiscation of some 4,199 board feet of illegally-gathered assorted lumber products.
“The one-time, big-time operation we conducted on Wednesday with the DENR netted 4,740.84 bd. ft. of assorted lumber products and 757 pieces of rattan all worth over PHP190,000,” Zarzoso said.
He added that ADSPPO and the DENR are still determining the identities of those personalities involved in illegal logging activities in the province. (PNA)
