TAGUM CITY (MindaNews/05 December) –  A government policy lifting the total log ban in Caraga and Davao regions in March 2005 may have helped strengthen the communist insurgency in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental,  the  “most problematic”  and “most potent” among the NPA-influenced areas nationwide.

Luga said there are seven guerilla fronts with about 450 armed regulars in these areas.

Nationwide, the NPA (New People’s Army) in these areas is “the biggest” and “the strongest,” he said.   

“Not Bicol anymore. That was before,” Luga said, adding this is “why my brigade is also the biggest brigade Army-wide.”

“They have the most number of people, most number of firearms. Here is where they get most of their resources…. they get a lot of resources here. They get a lot of money here,” he said citing gold mining in Diwalwal, logging and banana plantations.

But it is not the gold rush that has been a major source of funds for the NPA,  Luga  said. Not even the banana plantations which are spread all over.

“More from logging actually,” he said.

Asked if the lifting of  the moratorium on logging contributed to this, Luga replied, “most probably” although he added that “some of them,” referring to the NPA, “are doing illegal logging also.”

Ricardo Calderon, regional executive director of the Department of Environment and Natural resources (DENR) said he does not want to argue with the military as it may have its basis for saying so and they are not privy to it.

But Calderon said there’s more logging in Caraga. The Davao region, he said, has more  plantation species.

He said the wood industry’s utilization of  natural forest is only 11.9% compared with 89.1%  of  plantation forest.

This means that what are being harvested are plantation species like gmelina and falcatta, he explained.

But he acknowledged that “illegal logging hotspots” usually have peace and order problems.

President Arroyo declared a total log ban nationwide in mid-December 2004, following the killer  floods in Aurora and Quezon provinces that left nearly 2,000 persons dead.

But she lifted the total log ban in Caraga and Davao regions on March 7, 2005, during her visit to San Luis, Agusan del Sur, to  “respond to the growing clamor of thousands of families who are totally dependent on the wood industry and where alternative means of livelihood are not available.”

Then Environment Secretary Michael Defensor said that under the limited logging option, a production forest will be established in two or three regions while logging will be banned in the
remaining 13 to 14 regions of the country.

On March 8, 2005, President Arroyo repeated her announcement before the media in Davao City, adding "illegal logging breeds corruption, legal logging, good jobs."

"It is easier to control illegal logging when you have legal logging," she said.
 
Defensor then said that selective logging would be allowed in the Caraga and Davao regions. He said there are 150,000 hectares under permitees in Caraga and 100,000 hectares in Davao.

Caraga in Northeastern Mindanao comprises the provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur and the cities therein while Davao in Southeastern Mindanao comprises the three Davao provinces (del Norte, del Sur and Oriental), Compostela Valley province and their cities.

Defensor  described "selective logging" as "marami yang puno, lahat ng over mature, lahat ng matatanda na, lahat ng malalaki, puputulin" (there are plenty of trees. All those that are over mature, old and big, will be cut).

Luga said some of the business companies in the region do not give (to the NPA). “They take the  risk of being sabotaged. But most of them, they don’t have a choice. They give but not openly.”

Given this situation, Luga said what they are doing is to “infuse more troops, make them secure so that even if they do not give (to the NPA), nothing will happen to their businesses.”  (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)

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