The move of OIC Gov. Mujiv Hataman came long after at least two towns of eastern Lanao del Sur and two towns of neigboring Bukidnon appealed several times to Malacanang to direct the provincial offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to stop the continued traffic of illegally cut logs in the mountains of Bumbaran, Lanao del Sur, and their tranport to Cagayan de Oro City via the Bukidnon highway.

Hataman was in Marawi City on Saturday to meet Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr.; Col. Daniel Lucero, Brigade Commander of the Philippine Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade; and officials of the DENR-ARMM to discuss “rampant illegal logging in the province, which is believed to have contributed to the massive flash flood that hit Illigan City when typhoon Sendong struck the country,” a statement released by the ARMM Bureau of Public Information said.

Hataman directed the DENR-ARMM to issue a moratorium on logging pending “a thorough inventory of areas with trees classified as planted species, which have been exempted from the total log ban imposed by the ARMM government and can be cut down.”

He said the exemption had provided a loophole for illegal logging that was “made worse by a lax law enforcement.”

The agency was also directed “to come up with a transparent and complete report on the historical operations of logging in the province” as he warned that illegal loggers would be punished “and held accountable regardless of their background and affiliation.”

The report would also allow the region to assess the extent of its responsibility on the scale of the flood that hit Iligan, he said.

The involvement of civil society organizations is intended to strengthen Task Force Ranao and allow it to enhance its involvement in tackling other illegal activities in the province, Hataman said.

In the security briefing, Lucero said law enforcement had been “especially difficult in Lanao del Sur mainly due to the prevailing local culture in the province such as the case of rido (clan feud) and the often involvement of some politicians and other powerful individuals”.

He said law enforcers were reluctant to implement the rule of law for fear of instigating a rido between their family and that of the erring individual. But he said that the directive of Hataman gave “full backing” to enforcement.

The towns of Wao and Bumbaran, Lanao del Sur and Kalilangan and Talakag in Bukidnon had earlier told a group of reporters visiting Bumbaran in September this year that they have been contacting each other for the past years to coordinate information on the traffic of illegally cut logs.

Before the devastation caused by Typhoon Sendong, the Wao municipal government had already asked for Presidential intervention into the rampant illegal logging activities in the boundary of Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur, after several confrontations with authorities indicated that the loggers maintained their own armed men.

Wao Mayor Elvino B. Balicao Jr. and Bumbaran Mayor Datu Mastura C. Manabilang said separately that they were dismayed “why illegally cut logs continue to end up in Cagayan de Oro.”

They said they wanted the DENR to intensify their operations.

Balicao said that since 2009, forest guards and monitoring personnel of the town made seven confiscations, including: one ten-wheeler truck, which contained 18,193 board feet of Red Tiger or Red Egim, a species of wild fern wood used for furniture; a closed van, which hid flitches of other hardwood under some fruit harvests; and a jeep loaded with farm products that hid flitches of wood.

Bumbaran Mayor Manabilang, said his operatives had caught loggers with 60,000 board feet of the Red Egim species, and fleeing loggers left a manually-operated slicer blade.

Manabilang said that the loggers have now rarely used the Wao road, the crossroad of Lanao del Sur and Cotabato residents going to Bukidnon. Although part of Lanao del Sur, Bumbaran and Wao towns were isolated from the province by the mountains, and residents would rather use the Wao and Bukidnon highway to reach the province’s capital of Marawi City in longer, but paved national highways of Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte.

“That’s why, these loggers from Bumbaran would drag the cut logs toward Talakag town of Bukidnon, where loggers would only have to travel two more hours to reach their final market clients in Cagayan de Oro City,” he said.

“I don’t know why some of these wood find their way there, but I heard that the DENR has also caught a number of them,” he said. “That’s what we want the national government to give their full support to our campaign by stopping and inspecting all trucks and vehicles that they suspect to be transporting these logs.”

“What we have observed is the sudden rise of waters of Maridagao River, down to the Liguasan, and the flash flood in Maguindanao and Cotabato City could be traced to none other than the waters from this watershed,” Balicao said.

Balicao told reporters who visited his town and Bumbaran that the remaining problem lay with Bumbaran, where illegal loggers were still reported.