Jun Torres

October 6, 2008
Malaya

Nueva Ecija mayor faces investigation for illegal logging
By Jojo de Guzman

CABANATUAN CITY – Nueva Ecija police will investigate reports on the involvement of Gen. Tinio’s mayor in illegal logging activities in the town, which is being blamed for last week’s flash floods that affected Gapan City and three towns, displacing more than a thousand residents.

The suspicion was triggered by felled logs and processed lumber which were washed down from Gen. Tinio’s mountains by floodwaters.

Senior Supt. Ricardo Marquez, Nueva Ecija police director, said he has directed his intelligence officer to look into the possible involvement of Gen. Tinio Mayor Virgilio Bote in illegal logging.

The flash floods, which followed heavy rains brought by typhoon Pablo, buried houses in Gen. Tinio, San Leonardo, Gabaldon and Gapan City and forced the evacuation of residents in barangays Pias, Rio Chico, Poblacion East and Poblacion Centro in Gen Tinio; barangays Catellano and Nieves in San Leonardo; barangays Tagumpay and Bagong Sikat in Gabaldon, and barangay San Vicente, San Nicolas, Pambuasn, Sto. Niño and San Lorenzo, all in Gapan last Thursday.

Gapan Mayor Ernesto Natividad said that the flash floods were a clear indication that illegal logging persists in Gen. Tinio, a known logging hotbed. He said Gov. Aurelio Umali, who distributed relief goods to the affected families, vowed to conduct an investigation into the cause of the flash floods.

Bote, a former three-term mayor who reclaimed his post in last year’s elections, is a close ally of Umali’s.

In 2004, flash floods reportedly caused by illegal logging in Gen. Tinio buried communities in southern Nueva Ecija and downed a bridge in Cabiao town.