Minister feels heat and destroys Rosewood

On Wednesday night, a local alcalde busted a delivery truck in Deep River, Toledo which was being readied to transport over seven hundred pieces of rosewood destined for the lucrative export market. A moratorium on the extraction of the precious wood was put in place last year, but you wouldn’t know that because the illegal trade has continued to flourish under the noses of officialdom in the south. The moratorium was one of the first acts of the Minster of Forestry, Lisel Alamilla. Well today, the confiscated rosewood went up in smoke. Our cameras were rolling when the Minister set fire to the confiscated evidence which we are told will take at least three days to burn. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The incineration of over seven hundred logs by the Forestry Department this morning in Deep River is an outward expression of Minister Lisel Alamilla’s frustration with the continuous practice of illegal rosewood harvesting.  Since the authorization of an immediate suspension of activities pertaining to the felling of the precious lumber almost a year ago, the Ministry of Forests is still trying to get a handle on the situation.

Lisel Alamilla

Lisel Alamilla, Minister of Forestry

“My ministry has had enough.  Enough is enough.  We have been battling this rosewood business for the last nine months since I assumed office and we have not been able to put a dent into the rosewood illegal logging.  And so, we want a clear message sent [to] everyone who is involved in this rosewood business that the moratorium stands.  We have never made any changes to the position and we have not allowed any exportation of rosewood since we cleared the amount that we had the last time when we had first set the moratorium in place.”

Over four hundred thousand dollars in lumber is going up in smoke today, illicit cargo that was destined for the foreign market.  The holder of the concession is Hilmar Alamilla, a repeat offender.

Wilbur Sabido

Wilbur Sabido, Chief Forest Officer

“If you recall several weeks ago we had caught the same individual, or agents of this individual, operating under the current license and we caught the individual transporting rosewood flitches as well.  We took them to court and the court basically decided in our favor.  What the Forestry Department then did was to suspend the license, now in this particular instance the suspension is still in effect, meaning that there is a further violation on the part of the licensee, Hilmar Alamilla, in terms of the license conditions, meaning that we can then proceed to cancel the license; however, there are other conditions that we feel he has violated especially in terms of transporting or collecting material, rosewood material which, as the minister mentioned, is illegal to collect in the first place.”

While the source of the felled planks remains to be determined, what was discovered on Wednesday night was essentially a collection point a few hundred feet off the Southern Highway in Deep River.

Alfonso Cal, President, Toledo Alcaldes Association

“They have been sending a lot of rosewood like this in the night and I don’t know.  This is what I told them, “Has the law changed?  Has the law given [you permission] now that you can go and do your work in the night?”

And indeed, most of the clandestine activity is done at night under the cover of darkness.  To make matters worse agents continue to visit these rural communities where they are convincing villagers that they have been given special concessions to log for rosewood.

Lisel Alamilla

“No one, absolutely no one has been given any permit to extract, to salvage, to export rosewood.”

Isani Cayetano

“Secondly, what measures or actions will be taken against Hilmar Alamilla?  I know [that] he is the person that this concession is granted to and he is doing or what he has done has been deemed illegal.  Will there be any actions taken against him?”

Lisel Alamilla

“His license, his concession will be canceled with immediate effect.”

Additionally, there is a move by the department to seize Alamilla’s assets, particularly the equipment being used to log and extract rosewood trees.

Wilbur Sabido

“What we’re planning is to, with immediate effect, is to lay charges against the licensee, in this case it’s Mr. Alamilla.  I do realize that on Wednesday night there were other individuals which can easily be identifiable through the footage that the media gathered and we are also proceeding to lay charges against those individuals.  Our plan is to make sure that we do not have a recurrence of this particular incident.  We want to impress on the court and I hope that it does come across fairly well that there are a lot of assets that could actually be seized and that is our intention, not only the rosewood but also all the other assets that are actually found within this particular compound and which also belong to the licensee.”

The action, albeit symbolic, is one that is arguably a far cry from bringing the trade to a complete standstill.  It is, in this case, safe to assume that there are other agents proceeding with the extraction of rosewood despite today’s effort.  It is also the reason why the department is refocusing all its resources and energies on Toledo in 2013 in an effort to make a dent on the business. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.

As the rosewood continues to burn, it remains under heavy military guard.