The regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) yesterday asked the Cebu City government to furnish them with evidence that would pinpoint the perpetrators of the illegal cutting of about a hundred trees in the center island of the S. Osmeña Road, that is undergoing repairs.
“We would like to respectfully request your good Office to provide us an official copy of the recording or footage from a CCTV with an affidavit to be executed by a command center operator and possibly affidavits also from certain Cebu City Traffic Operations Management personnel who may have witnessed the earth-balling operations,” said DENR-7 regional executive director Isabelo Montejo in a letter addressed to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama dated April 4.
Around a hundred fully-grown trees, mostly fire trees lining the center island of S. Osmeña Road have disappeared in the course of road work.
DENR-7 spokesperson Ed Llamedo said that they are targeting April 10 for the filing of cases against those responsible for the cutting of trees.
“That is why we hope City Hall will provide us with the much-needed documents which we will submit as evidence in the filing of cases,” Llamedo told Cebu Daily News.
Those who cut trees without a permit are deemed criminally under Presidential Decree (PD) 705, as revised by PD 389 or the Forestry Reforms Code of the Philippines.
Section 68 of this law mandates among others that, “Any person who shall cut, gather, collect, or remove timber or other forest products from any forest land, or timber from alienable and disposable public lands, or from private lands, without any authority under a license agreement, lease, license or permit, shall be guilty of qualified theft as defined and punished under Articles 309 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code; Provided, That in the case of partnership, association or corporation, the officers who ordered the cutting, gathering or collecting shall be liable…”
Sought for comment, Mayor Rama said he will be waiting for a recommendation from councilor Dave Tumulak who heads the city’s Command Control Center (C3) before acting on the request.
“That will have to be discussed with Dave Tumulak. If it (recommendation) reaches me already, I will be deciding on it after,” Rama said.
Protocols
According to Tumulak, there are certain protocols to be followed before they can release the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage.
“We can’t just release the CCTV footage. There are certain protocols to follow like having a court order first. We’re also worried about the security issue if ever we release the footage,” Tumulak told CDN.
Although he said he’s not entirely closed to the idea of providing a copy of the CCTV footage, Tumulak said the DENR should first “thoroughly study” the case they’re going to file against the contractor.
“The contractor already admitted that they did it. That’s enough evidence already,” Tumulak said.
The DENR has been gathering evidence for a case to be filed against WT Constructions Inc., the contractor of the road project. The case to be filed is an offshoot to the earth-balled trees which were removed allegedly from March 26 to March 30 and are now missing as a result of the road rehabilitation project in S. Osmeña road.
As a consequence, the DENR’s Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) Cebu City, issued a cease-and-desist order last April 4 to DPWH to stop the earth-balling activity in the area, pending their investigation. The actual roadworks however, were allowed to continue.
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