The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) yesterday hailed the decision of a lower court in Southern Leyte to sentence three illegal loggers to 20 years imprisonment. A 9-page decision penned by Fernando C. Campilan, Jr., acting presiding judge of the San Juan, Leyte Regional Trial Court, found Celso Taride, Ledio Tubigon and Ernie Valenzona guilty of violating the Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines. The three were nabbed during an anti-illegal logging operation set up by a team which included DENR personnel and the Philippine National Police. The accused were found illegally cutting into smaller pieces 10 freshly-felled stumps with a total volume of 58.4 cubic meters. The court ruled that the said practice is in gross violation of Section 68 of Presidential Decree 705 on the illegal gathering, cutting and/or collecting of forest products without the necessary permits from the DENR.