The last two years have been deadly for government forestry workers and environmental advocates.
According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), 20 of its employees, contractual workers and civil society partners have been killed since 2010. The latest figures added to the death toll were recorded on Friday in Surigao del Sur province, the ground zero for illegal logging in the Philippines.
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje identified the latest casualties as Rolando Intas, 57, and Wilner Pelos Colorita, 52, who were both gunned down by an unknown assailant.
Paje said Intas and Colorita were forest protection officers who worked for a forest cooperative in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.
DENR Director Nonito Tamayo of the Caraga region said the two men worked closely with his office.
A few days before the two were killed, they intercepted and confiscated 1,000 board feet of hardwood lumber that were illegally harvested from their forest land.
“They were killed in the market by a lone unknown assailant. One of them died on the spot, while the other died on arrival at the hospital,” Tamayo said.
Before 2010, there were instances of violence against DENR workers, but they were not as severe nor as brazen.
In 2009, one DENR employee was killed while at work, DENR records show. In 2008, six died while on official duty, including a forest ranger gunned down at a checkpoint.
No safeguards
Alyansa Tigil Mina and Kalikasan People’s Network said 17 environmental activists had been killed under the Aquino administration. Since 2001, there had been 58 killings, the groups added.
“If the figures from DENR Secretary Paje are accurate … that is extremely alarming,” Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“These killings are all the more alarming in the context of the Aquino (administration’s) determined push for more investments in mining. Without the necessary safeguards in place to protect DENR employees and environment advocates, we are afraid that the killings will continue,” he said. –Kristine L. Alave, Philippine Daily Inquirer
March –
IT’S WOMEN’S MONTH!
“Respect and support women
every day of the year/s!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands
#Report Corruption #SearchPosts #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week;
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and “
Made-in-the-Philippines Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
March 4: Employee Appreciation Day
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day
March 18: Global Recycling Day
March 21: International Day for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
March 23: International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations
and for the Dignity of Victims
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 27: Earth Hour
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