Although the root user writes to the files 'error_log' and 'access_log', the Apache user has to own the file referenced by 'error_log = filename' or no log entries will be written.
; From php.ini
; Log errors to specified file.
error_log = /usr/local/apache/logs/php.errors
[root@www logs]$ ls -l /usr/local/apache/logs/php.errors
-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody root 27K Jan 27 16:58 php.errors