CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, (PNA) — The Department and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office here has ordered the immediate inventory of lumber stocks, logs and flitches of over 400 furniture shops and sash factories in Central Luzon.
The move aims to monitor the wood industry’s compliance to Pres. Benigno Aquino III’s Executive Order 23 which calls for a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in natural and residual forests.
DENR executive director Maximo Dichoso deployed four composite teams of senior foresters, each led by a DENR deputy director in Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to determine the sources of wood materials and the available wood supply of furniture makers and sash manufacturers in those provinces.
Dichoso’s imprimatur carried with it an order to confiscate all illegal lumber found on the stockyard of erring wood manufacturers and to file charges against them under the Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines or PD 705 and other applicable laws.
“This is to ensure that the wood industry only gets its supply of raw materials from legitimate sources, and that appropriate forestry taxes are paid to the government,” he said.
Under PD 705, offenders shall be punished with the penalties for the crime of theft imposed under Articles 309 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code, and face imprisonment of up to 20 years for forest products worth more than P22,000.