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LUMAD CRY FOR JUSTICE FOR THE DEATH OF ANTI-LOGGING LEADER

By atm.admin - Posted on December 27th, 2009

Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental – Early morning of December 24th, Alberto “Berting” Pinagawa, a Higaonon anti-logging leader hiked from his house in Sitio Muyo, Brgy. Minalwang, Claveria, Misamis Oriental together with his 13 year old nephew to Brgy. Eureka, Gingoog City to catch for a “habal-Habal” ride in time for the family Christmas get-together in Brgy. Kalipayan, Gingoog City.

While in Sitio Papataon, Brgy. Eureka, assailants blocked his way and violently fired at least 20 shots of high a powered gun which shattered his body, abdomen and his right arm. His nephew rushed for safety in the nearly road side slope with his small bag of 4 empty bottles in exchange for coins in the barangay junk shop.

Berting has been involved in organizing his community to cancel the Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) awarded to Southwood Timber Corporation (STC) in May 2008 covering 11,476 hectares. “Being his strong staunch and one of the petitioners of the IFMA cancellation campaign, he has been receiving death threats since then. In the last two (2) meetings for the anti- logging campaign, I have to be with him. He was not afraid to die, because what he did was for the good of everyone” – Hinara Pinagawa, wife of Berting. The petition with 12,000 signatures of Gingoog city residents was filed last December 18, 2008 before the office of the city mayor.

In the heart of the logging area is the house of Berting sitting in the vantage point of seeing each tree fell in their ancestral domain. Each day is a griming picture of killing the entire biodiversity of the mountain. “the death of my brother is not an isolated case here, my father, who has been in the forefront of defending our land was also brutally killed 27 years ago almost in the same spot where berting was murdered”- Datu Carmelito Pinagawa, eldest brother of Berting. 140 indigenous people were reportedly killed since May 2001, 14 are women, 4 are pregnant, 7 are children and 16 are key leaders in the forefront of defending against development aggressions like mining, corporate plantations, large-scale dams.. – lrc-ksk files

1000 Gingoog city residents are offering a prayer rally this Monday, December 28, which will converge in Gingoog Parish and march until the City Hall. The SB of Gingoog city is convening this Monday to discuss the IFMA case.

Carl Cesar C. Rebuta
Team Leader
Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center(LRC-KsK)
Cagayan de Oro Regional Office

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Hi everyone,

I'm the national coordinator of Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), the owner of this site.

We will always respect views and opinions posted on this site, as much as we encourage open discussion and intelligent debate on the issue of mining. ATM has its stand on this issue very clearly, and we welcome the comments from those who do not agree with us.

However, we have observed that in the past few days, this forum has gone way beyond acceptable behavior of netiquette.

I will request and strongly encourage all posters to at least follow the following rules:

1. Be civil. Basic courtesy and privacy norms should be practised by posters in this forum. Make your mom at least proud by showing you still remember to be polite, even if you're not required to say "po" or "opo" in every post you make. We wouldn't mind that either, if you do so. Then again, I am assuming here that you're already an adult.

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We'll check up again on this new rules after a short while. Of course, we expect the Intex ECC to be revoked in a few days. In this case, I suspect that the "excitement" in this thread would have died down.

Jaybee Garganera
National Coordinator
ATM
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