News Updates - 23 October 2009 (Friday)

NPA behind kidnap of 7 DENR workers — AFP
The Daily Tribune – www.tribune.net
Friday, October 23, 2009


The military yesterday tagged the communist rebel group New People’s Army (NPA) as the one behind the kidnapping of seven employees of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Agusan del Sur province the other day.


In a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said efforts were underway to track down the group of armed men that abducted the seven members of the DENR’s anti-illegal logging task force around 1 a.m. Wednesday.


Forester, team leader Gabriel Arlan, Teofredo Pujadas, Rito Espenido, Rudy Clar, Eduardo Abogatal, Emiliano Gatillo Jr. and Efren Sabuero, members of the DENR’s Task Force Watershed, were seized by armed men on board four motorcycles who stormed the Anticala village watershed multi-sectoral checkpoint in Butuan City, which the kidnap victims were manning at the time.


Brawner said the military was able to find out that the kidnap suspects belong to the Guerrilla Front 21-B of the NPA’s Northeastern Mindanao Regional Committee, reportedly led by a certain Manuel Anob.


Brawner said the suspects have already made several demands, including the cancellation of the community-based forest management agreement operating in Sibagat area, Agusan del Sur.


The other demands of the group, according to Brawner, are for the awarding by the local government of a “certificate of ancestral domain” to the locals in the area; the approval of the establishment of a customary farm; and the cancellation of the operations of the integrated forest management agreement.


“Basically, their demands have something to do with reforestation, the implementation of laws pertaining to reforestation and ancestral domain. So it appears that they want the agreements canceled and they want to be a beneficiary; that these be given to them and they be awarded certificates of ancestral domain,” the military official said.


Brawner said the AFP had sent out troops to go after the kidnap group and secure the freedom of the seven DENR workers.


“We are conducting the operations. Our intelligence units are working to gather more information. That is why we were able to identify the leader of the kidnapping of the seven DENR employees and now they are communicating their intentions or demands,” he said.


Brawner said the military, at the moment, has its hands full as it is currently conducting operations to free the DENR workers and two other kidnapping victims in the South – Irish priest Michael Sinnot, who was abducted by a local pirate group in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Norte last Oct. 11, and a school principal in Patikul town, Sulu, who was snatched by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants last Monday.


With PNA




Ex-NPA rebels seeking land free 2 forest rangers
By Franklin A. Caliguid, Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer – www.inquirer.net
Friday, October 22, 2009


MANILA, Philippines — Former communist guerrillas on Thursday freed two of seven forest guards kidnapped to press demands for land for tribal communities at a mineral- and timber-rich watershed in Butuan City, the military reported.


Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said Emiliano Gatillo Jr. and Efren Sabuero were released at the Sibagat area in Butuan and were now with the Philippine National Police.


The other abducted forest rangers of the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR)—Gabriel Arlan, Rito Espinido, Jovito Perater, Eufredo Pohadas and Eduardo Abugatal—remained under custody.


The leader of the kidnappers who identified himself as Andot Behing had earlier called a DENR task force just hours after the group seized the forest rangers who were on a monitoring mission at Barangay Anticalo in Butuan on Wednesday.


Behing demanded the cancellation of the community-based forest agreements in the Sibagat area, the awarding of ancestral domain titles to Manobos and other indigenous groups in the area and the approval of customary farming in exchange for the freedom of the foresters.


Edilberto Buiser, Caraga environment chief, said Behing had pledged to begin releasing some of the captives as a sign of goodwill.


“Negotiations are on so we are hoping this crisis will end in a peaceful way and without bloodshed,” Buiser told the Inquirer.


Police asked to withdraw


But he said that the resolution of Behing’s demands depended on Environment Secretary Lito Atienza. “The DENR would observe due process and the rule of law,” Buiser said.


He also said that to avert possible bloodshed, he had asked the police and the military-led Task Force Anticala to withdraw its forces from the area where guerrillas of the communist New People’s Army operate.


“The police would give room for the negotiations and the operation for the rescue of the captives had already been called off,” said Chief Supt. Lino Calingasan, Caraga police director.


“We have a time frame for the negotiation and the government cannot be held hostage with any ploy. The unconditional and safe release of the captives is paramount,” he said.


Calingasan said the talks with the kidnappers were being carried out by church leaders, DENR officials and the police through the indigenous people leaders and chieftains.


The seven forest rangers were seized while manning a DENR station inside the Anticala-Taguibo area in Barangay Anticala.


Illegal mining, logging


They were deployed to stop illegal mining and timber poaching blamed for the shortage of water in the city.


The 4,300-hectare watershed has huge deposits of manganese, copper, gold and nickel and extends up to Cabadbaran in Agusan del Norte.


Troops have launched pursuit operations against the abductors reportedly under Manuel Anob, secretary general of the Guerrilla Front 21-B of the Northeastern Mindanao Regional Committee, Brawner told reporters earlier.


“All of their demands have something to do with reforestation ... they want to void certain agreements and to be awarded land titles,” he said at Camp Aguinaldo.