The Department of Environment and Natural Resources on Tuesday denounced the violence committed against a forester and two police officers involved in anti-illegal logging operations in the provinces of Aurora and Northern Samar.
“We vehemently denounce any kind of violent acts inflicted on our defenders of the environment, especially at a time when we are all dealing with an unprecedented public health crisis,” Secretary Roy Cimatu said.
He said he wants swift justice for forest management specialist II Danilo Pascasio, who is now fighting for his life after being brutally attacked by an illegal logging suspect in Aurora, and Patrolmen Jessie Golondrina and Edwin Fernando Velarde, who both died while conducting an operation against three suspected timber poachers in Northern Samar.
Both incidents took place on Sept. 27.
Pascasio was repeatedly shot in front of his house in Barangay Calabuanan in Baler town by a certain Dennis Ruzol.
The suspect was arrested on Sept. 24 for violating the forestry law. He posted bail on the same day.
“To assault an environmental worker, who is just doing his job amid this coronavirus 2019 pandemic, is utterly inhumane and unjust,” Cimatu said.
Police are now conducting a manhunt operation against Ruzol.
According to Aurora provincial environment and natural resources officer Alfredo Collado, Pascacio played a major role in 11 anti-illegal timber poaching operations from June 6 to Sept. 24.
One operation resulted in the arrest and filing of charges against Ruzol and two others, and the confiscation of 422 pieces or 4,865 board feet of illegally manufactured lumber, one elf truck, one Kia Besta van, two chainsaws and a tricycle.
Golondrina and Velarde were killed in a gunfight while securing a Masbate-bound pump boat carrying over 11,000 board feet of undocumented ‘lauan’ timber they recovered from suspected illegal loggers in the coastal town of San Isidro in Northern Samar.
The deaths of forest and environmental workers prompted Cimatu to call for the immediate passage of a legislative measure creating the DENR Enforcement Bureau.