MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his Cabinet to study the possibility of imposing a total log ban to protect the country’s watersheds.

Duterte ordered the formation of a tripartite “convergence committee” to be composed of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior and Local Government, according to Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella.

Abella said the order was made during Tuesday’s Joint Climate Change Commission (CCC) En Banc and Advisory Board Meeting.

On Facebook, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the tripartite committee will meet on February 6 to formulate the guidelines on the total logging ban and design programs which would ensure the efficient reforestation of the denuded watersheds in the country.

Piñol, citing information from Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, said that in spite of the total logging ban in the country, several companies were still given licenses to cut down trees under the Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) and the Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) contracts awarded by the DENR.

"Hindi ba total log ban na tayo? Stop all logging operations with no exemptions," Piñol recalled Duterte asking Lopez.

On February 1, then-President Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order 23, implementing an indefinite nationwide logging ban in a bid to address forest denudation.

The EO, however, only covers natural and residual forests, which are composed of indigenous trees not planted by man.

Despite Duterte’s order of a “no exceptions” log ban, Piñol emphasized that guidelines must be clear on how to treat the cutting of trees planted by farmers for their future use.

“I argued that banning the cutting of trees planted by farmers themselves would be counterproductive because it would discourage people from planting trees,” Pinol said.

“The planting and harvesting of pulp and paper trees like Falcata is also a major source of livelihood for poor families in the Davao and Caraga Regions.”

Several parts of Mindanao were recently inundated by floods. The denudation of forests were blamed for the flooding.