Paje orders crackdown on illegal logging in Zambales; asks DPWH to blast logging road
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga --- Environment Secretary Ramon Paje ordered last week the deployment of a combined team of forest protection officers and army operatives to stop illegal logging operations inside the 13,800-hectare forests of Zambales near the Sta. Cruz-Mangatarem border.
Ricardo Calderon, executive director of the Central Luzon Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said the joint DENR-Philippine Army team swooped down on identified logging sites and retrieved over 9,000 board feet of assorted lumber worth about half a million pesos.
Illegal loggers left the forest contraband hidden through the jungle upon seeing the advancing team.
More than 100 forest protection personnel and enlisted men from the 24th Infantry Batallion of the Philippine Army based in Palauig took part in the week-long anti-illegal logging operation, in coordination with local officials and the local police.
Environment authorities are now looking into the possibility of filing illegal logging charges against a contractor of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for deviating from the approved road plan and building a nine-kilometer road that cuts through the forests instead.
Fire-prone areas in CL under DENR watch; fire control teams on red alert
ABOUT 400,000 hectares of dry open grasslands across Central Luzon are now under tight watch by forest protection officers of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in anticipation of wildfires this summer.
Fire suppression teams composed of forest protection officers and village leaders in Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) areas have already been placed on red alert as early as January this year to respond to fire emergencies in fire-prone areas, revealed executive director Ricardo Calderon of the regional DENR here.
MODERNIZING PUBLIC SERVICE
MODERNIZING PUBLIC SERVICE. Central Luzon Executive Director Ricardo Calderon (insert center) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) receives a P10 million worth of desktop and laptop computers, printers and scanners from Undersecretary for Planning and Policy Studies Demetrio Ignacio (insert right) as part of the three-year Information Technology (IT) computerization and modernization program of Secretary Ramon Paje. The program is embodied in the DENR’s Integrated Strategic Systems Plan and aims to modernize DENR operations, optimize the use of IT in promoting transparency and efficiency in public service delivery, and in eliminating opportunities for graft and corruption.
