PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, April 12 (PNA) — Police authorities in Palawan on Friday swooped down upon Naglayan Island in the town of Culion to serve two search warrants against the controversial high-end Sunlight Eco-Tourism Resort to look for more suspected illegally cut logs and to conduct an inventory of those that had been utilized in the construction of in-placed facilities.
Palawan Provincial Police Office (PPO) Superintendent Benjamin C. Acorda, Jr. told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview Saturday morning that Sunlight was already closed and secured with blue guards when their team arrived on the said day to serve the search warrants issued by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the province.
Occupying 18 hectares on Naglayan, Sunlight, which is owned by Chinese businessman Giok EH Sy Brito, alias Giok Brito, is currently involved in a large illegal logging controversy that Governor Jose Alvarez “is not happy about,” according to Acorda.
“Governor Alvarez is really serious in making the owner answer for the suspected illegally cut logs,” the top-ranking provincial police official said.
Acorda said the search warrants were served with representatives from the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Palawan, barangay representatives, and provincial government officials.
With an estimate of over 100 beach cottages and buildings strewn all over Naglayan, the provincial police chief said maximum inventory, which could take days, has to be conducted to ensure that all illegally cut logs are found, including those that had been used to make furniture sets; are already fixed in position in structures; and other facilities of the island resort.
With the great task ahead, Acorda said maximum inventory could take “maybe a week” before the warrants are returned to the RTC with detailed information of those found.
Earlier, Provincial Information Officer Gil Acosta said seized lumbers from Sunlight’s stockyard already yielded over 60,000 board feet of suspected illegally cut logs, and might even reached more than 100,000 board feet when the inventory is completed.
On Friday, Acorda told the PNA that initially resort staff refused to receive the search warrants allegedly on the advice of Brito’s lawyer, and denied them entry inside the buildings.
“There was no strong resistance; we started the inventory inside building structures that are not locked,” he said. This is because staff of Naglayan reportedly claimed the keys have been sent to their head office in Manila.
Acorda said the PPO is ready to provide support to the DENR-Palawan that admitted recently that it lacks the manpower to ensure that the province’s 23 municipalities are protected against illegal logging.
”We recognize the problem, and we are ready to help and support the DENR in the province to protect our forests from illegal logging,” Acorda stated.
Brito, the Chinese-businessman, who claimed ownership of the island, will be sued for violating Presidential Decree 705, or the Forestry Law of the Philippines, for allegedly in possession of illegally cut logs.(PNA)