Killers of environmental activists should be identified

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon

  

The murder of a Department of Environment and Natural Resources chief from Quirino adds to the killing of environmental activists issuing a clear message that killers do not discriminate.

The assailants kill anyone who gets along their way to prevent them from logging the trees. The victim may either be a woman or  a man, a church worker , a government employee  or a non-government worker, a village leader, a doctor, a foreigner or professional.  No one is exempted from the greed and ruthlessness of killers of environmental-workers and activists.

Alfredo Almueda, 59, community environment and natural resources officer of the Maddela-Nagtipunan area, was shot dead in Barangay Villa Sur past midnight on New Year’s Day, while he and forest guards Gene Martin and Ronaldo Calonge were at a DENR checkpoint.  Also, DENR forest specialist MelaniaDirain was shot and killed in her office in Sanchez Mira, Cagayan Feb. 7 last year.

Almueda and Dirain are victims added to environmentalist Dr. Isidro Olan, executive director of Lovers of Nature Foundation who was shot on October 29 last year.  Olan is a known activist against destructive mining and illegal logging operations in southern Philippines.

Botanist Leonard Co who documented herbal plants in the Cordillera and now being used as resource for alternative medicine was allegedly caught in crossfire between the military and rebels in a forested area in Kananga, Leyte on November 15, 2010. Also, Dr. Gerry Ortega, known for his stand against mining in Palawan was killed on January 24, 2011

Priests are not spared.Fr. Jose Francisco Talaban, Aurora-based parish clergyman active against the controversial Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (APECO) was almost killed when his convent was strafed in 2010.

Also, Italian priest and environmentalist Fr Fausto Tentorio was shot dead in Cotabato on October 17, 2011. Village leaders are no exception whether they are indigenous peoples or not.  Their children are not spared in the killers’ brutal and inhuman acts.  

B’laan village leader Daquil Capion known to be against the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI) is the target of assailants out to get him.   His pregnant wife and two children aged 13 and 8 years old, were instead killed October 18, 2012 when their farmhouse was allegedly strafed by a unit of the Army’s 27th Infantry Batallion.

Village leader Timuay Lucencio Manda who opposed illegal mining in Bayog, Zamboanga Del Sur was ambushed resulting in the death of his 11-year old son Jordan on September 4, 2012.

This country mourns the death of environmental activists and workers along with their families, committed to their work of saving nature and where along the doing of their work is killed.  Sad and equally calls for condemnation are the acts of the killers and their masterminds. A cruel and inhuman act of disrespecting life and dignity of humankind should not go unpunished and perpetrators and masterminds should be held accountable for their acts.

Meantime, military men, government officials, and corrupt DENR men are reportedly identified in intelligence reports as cited in newspaper accounts to be behind illegal logging.  

In  Compostela Valley and  Davao region of  Mindanao, these were ravaged by recent typhoon Pablo  resulting to the death of 1,050 persons  and 800 missing, Illegal logging had been noted to have contributed to the typhoon- induced landslides while local officials have been identified to be behind illegal logging.

From his investigations, columnist Ramon Tulfo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer identified Davao Oriental Rep. Nelson Dayanghirang (1st District); Gov. Corazon Malanyaon and her brother, Cateel Mayor Camilo Nunez as having abused permits given by the DENR by cutting down trees not covered by the permits in the mountains of Baganga and Cateel towns in Davao Oriental province.

In Bicol ravaged areas resulted to deaths of hundreds of persons  brought about by  typhoons Akang and Monang in 1994. Again,   politicians, military men and corrupt DENR men were reportedly behind illegal logging there.  Governors of six Bicol provinces during their terms  in 1994  are one in blaming illegal logging as the principal cause of landslides and flashfloods.

DENR reports 20 years ago noted Bicol has 541,000 hectares where illegal loggers left only 108,000 hectares. In 1994, Bicol region DENR executive director Pedro Caleon said people responsible for rape of forests should be held responsible.

What happened in the Bicol region rings a heavier and more deathly disaster in Ormoc, Leyte in 1991 when landslides and flashfloods drowned more than 5000 persons, noted to have been caused by massive commercial and illegal logging reportedly perpetrated by military men, local officials and corrupt DENR men.

The story has not changed a bit these past two years.    

With typhoon Sendong hitting Aurora province two years ago, scattered pieces of logs and timber were carried downstream from the mountains, an evidence of massive logging in the area. It’s no different in 2004 when typhoons “Unding,” “Violeta,” “Winnie,” and “Yoyong”   showed fallen trees and logs clearly manifesting massive logging in this area.

Ruthless illegal and large scale commercial loggers don’t care if their operations will cause deaths of people and destruction of property along with the mountains getting bald in exchange for money to satisfy their greed and material fulfillment.  

They remain accountable to their acts. The government’ system of making them accountable remains the call.  And while environmental activists persist to save nature and save lives, let government do the rest of being on their side with President Benigno Noynoy Aquino's Matuwid na Daan which remains to be seen.   

Now here comes a move from the DENR to hand over central control of the anti-illegal logging operations to the military with the creation of the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force (AILTF).

What awaits the fate of forest protection and biodiversity preservation with alleged perpetrators of illegal logging being given the task of anti- illegal operations? I wonder. 

The remaining 15% of forest cover continues to be threatened. Eighty two percent of original forest cover since the Spanish times has been lost in the country having the thinnest forest cover in Southeast Asia. Among 89 tropical countries, the Philippines are one of 11 with the lowest forest per capita along with degraded and threatened watersheds.

Human deaths from threats of landslides in this disaster prone and vulnerable country remain high.