Duterte wants total log ban

MANILA, Philippines –President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the creation of a tripartite committee that would study the implementation of a total log ban in the country.

The announcement came a week after flashfloods damaged multi-million properties and crops in  Davao region and major cities in Mindanao.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella in a statement announced “The President has ordered that a tripartite convergence committee be formed, composed of DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources), DA (Department of Agriculture), and DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) to discuss details of a total log ban in order to protect our watersheds.”

Duterte gave the instruction during the Climate Change Commission and Advisory Board en banc meeting at Malacañang on Tuesday night.

Duterte ordered the DENR “to implement the ban on logging in the country without any exemptions.”

Environment Secretary Regina Lopez was also given full  authority by the president to implement the total log ban.

Lopez who recently visited Surigao provinces vowed to implement the laws to protect the forest from further denudation.

Abella said the tripartite convergence committee “was formed to formulate the guidelines in the implementation of a tougher government action against illegal logging.”

The Committee, he said, would meet on February 6, to formulate the guidelines on the total logging ban.