Anti-logging ‘lumad’ leader slain in Misamis

GINGOOG CITY, Philippines – A Higaonon “alimaong” (warrior), who had been leading an anti-logging campaign, was shot and killed by unidentified men in the village of Minalwang here on Christmas Eve.

Alberto Pinagawa, 54, was walking down a remote road with his son at the boundary of Barangays Minalwang and Eureka when he was killed at around 6 a.m. He had just left his farm and was headed home in Barangay Kalipay.

Pinagawa suffered at least 20 bullet wounds in the head and body, inflicted by M-16 rifles.

His son escaped unharmed. A brother, who was trailing the two by about 500 meters, found the body a few minutes after the attack.

Probe

Catholic parishes called for an immediate investigation into the killing. They urged the city government to look into Pinagawa’s contention that a government-issued forestry agreement covered an area that overlapped with that of the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim of the Higaonon community in Minalwang.

Since July, Pinagawa had been at the forefront of exposing the logging of old-growth trees, particularly those of “balakbakon” (lauan) in the former logging concession of Anakan Timber Corp.

The logging activities are reportedly spearheaded by Southwood Timber Corp. (STC), which has been granted an Integrated Forest Management Agreement (Ifma) by the regional Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The Ifma stipulates that an area of about 11,600 hectares has been awarded to STC for 25 years, from 2009 to 2033, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining an industrial forest or a forest plantation.

Ancestral domain

Pinagawa had resisted the cutting of trees by STC because the area given the company was part of the ancestral domain of the indigenous group.

Early in December, the parish of Anakan, where Pinagawa is a lay minister, gathered 12,000 signatures from residents, who opposed the continued logging of old-growth trees in the area they considered to be a watershed.

According to family members, Pinagawa had been receiving death threats since November when the signature campaign was under way.

“We brought our father from the crime site to the funeral parlor in Gingoog City only at around 5 p.m., or about 11 hours after he was killed. Then, it took about another 12 hours to stitch the wounds and prepare the body,” one of his sons said.

A month earlier, a dozen tribal members were killed, according to Kublay, a Northern Mindanao federation of indigenous peoples. –Lina Sagaral Reyes, Inquirer Mindanao