COTABATO CITY (November 13, 2025) — The local government of Lamitan City, one of the two cities in Basilan in the Bangsamoro region, has intensified its effort to prevent deforestation in some of its barangays that still have forests.
Mayor Roderick Herrera Furigay was quoted in radio reports on Thursday, November 13, in Cotabato City as saying that his office has enlisted the help of his constituent-communities in addressing illegal cutting of trees along rivers and mountain ranges in Lamitan City as part of his administration’s cross-section environment-protection initiative.
Furigay on Wednesday, November 12, presided over a dialogue with representatives from the police and army units in Lamitan City and employees of divisions under his office where he discussed with them the need for extensive cooperation in preventing illegal cutting of trees by poachers in all of the barangays under Lamitan City.
Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region said on Thursday that he has directed his subordinate-officers in the Lamitan City Police Station and in the Basilan Provincial Police Office to work closely with Furigay in protecting the remaining patches of timberlands in all of the barangays in the city.
Photo shows Furigay presiding over an inter-agency conference on his administration’s effort to prevent poaching of timbers in all of the barangays under his jurisdiction.