Charcoal was reportedly produced through illegal logging
By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
At least 100 sacks of charcoal were confiscated after Manapla municipal police and officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (DENR-CENRO) seized a boat last Tuesday in the town’s Barangay II-A.
Manapla Municipal Police Station chief, Police Captain Jaynick Bermudez, said they conducted the operation in relation to Section 77 of Presidential Decree 705, otherwise known as the “Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines.”
Signed in 1975 by then-President Ferdinand Marcos, Section 77 lays out the penalties for the unlawful collecting and gathering of timber and other forest products.
When authorities arrived on site, they discovered the unidentified owner of the boat fled and left behind the sacks of charcoal, which were produced through illegal logging.
The confiscated sacks of charcoal were temporarily placed under custody of the Manapla Municipal Police Station, while the case was referred to the DENR-CENRO in Cadiz City./DGB, WDJ