By Mike Crismundo
BUTUAN CITY – Alert personnel manning a checkpoint intercepted a Mitsubishi Wing Van truck loaded with 11,112.2 board feet of illegally-sawn red and white lauan lumbers along the national highway of Crossing Barangay Cancavan, Carmen town, Surigao del Sur province on Saturday, police reported Monday.
shown in photo is the intercepted Mitsubishi Wing Van Truck loaded with 11,112.2 board feet of illegally-sawn red and white lauan lumbers in a police checkpoint along the national highway of Crossing Barangay Cancavan, Carmen town, Surigao del Sur late Saturday afternoon, Dec. 28, 2019. (Photo courtesy of PRO 13-RPIO/Mike U. Crismundo/MANILA BULLETIN)
Government authorities estimated the seized forest products to be worth more than P222,244.
Joint PNP personnel from Carmen Municipal Police Station, 2nd Company Surigao Del Sur Police Mobile Force Company, and Municipal Environment and Natural Resource Office (MENRO)-Carmen intercepted the said truck driven by Enrique T. Tejada, 60, a resident of Purok 11, Barangay Taglatawan, Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur, said Maj. Renel E. Serrano, chief of Regional Public Information Office (RPIO) of Police Regional Office 13 (PRO 13).
Initial investigation disclosed that the truck was travelling from Lianga, Surigao del Sur bound for Bad-as, Barangay Sta Cruz, Placer, Surigao del Norte, but upon approaching the checkpoint, the driver was asked to stop the truck and to open the back door to verify the items inside the truck.
“First, the driver refused and maneuvered to move the truck, prompting the authorities to hold and stop it. Upon opening the truck, it was found that it was loaded with said red and white lauan lumbers,” initial report indicated.
The driver and the confiscated items are now with the Carmen MPS for further investigation and proper disposition.
In a statement Monday, PRO 13 Regional Director Joselito T. Esquivel, Jr. assured the community that the PNP, in coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other government agencies, would go after small/large-scale environmental offenders and make sure that the laws on environmental protection are strictly implemented.