| Aquino orders crackdown on loggers defying ban |
Manolo B Jara
MANILA Philippine President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino ordered a crackdown on influential personalities and government officials who continued to defy his ban on illegal logging nationwide.
The order, Aquino said, includes prison officials who are “to prepare “additional space so that they can have their vacation there,” referring to illegal loggers and their cohorts convicted by the courts.
“It has reached my attention that there are still those who apparently don’t believe that we are serious in imposing the ban,” Aquino said in his speech at the 25th anniversary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) held in Malacanang Palace on Tuesday.
“People who have cohorts among members of the government continue logging activities,” he said. ”We are being directly challenged and I accept the challenge.”
Aquino stressed he does not want a repeat of the devastation wrought by tropical storm ‘Sendong’ in December when thousands of illegally cut logs found their way to the rivers in Mindanao.
The importance of a logging ban, Aquino said, could not be overemphasised, citing the deaths of nearly 1,000 people in the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro at the height of Sendong.
Oman Tribune
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