Kin of missing Misamis broadcaster worried, confirm death threats

GINGOOG CITY, MISAMIS ORIENTAL- Close relatives of missing Higaonon Tribal Datu and freelance journalist Emmanuel "Manny" Ansihagan are now worried over the fate of the freelance broadcaster, who has been missing since January 14 after receiving death threats from alleged illegal loggers. On January 14, Thursday, Ansihagan went to Gingoog City Police Office to report death threats he was supposedly receiving from alleged illegal loggers operating in their ancestral domain. Since then, Ansihagan could no longer be contacted through his mobile phone and has not returned home. Gingoog City Chief of Police Senior Supt. Leony Roy Ga confirmed that Ansihagan had sought his assistance and had the death threats recorded in the police blotter. "I advised him not to go far and to communicate with me from time to time in case he needs help," Ga told GMANews.TV Ga admitted that Ansihagan had confided to him about allegedly rampant illegal logging activities in their ancestral lands perpetuated by supposed lumber owners and wood traders in Gingoog City, as well as some wood buyers from Cagayan de Oro City. "He told me that and claimed he is afraid of the death threats he suspected coming from moneyed illegal loggers," Ga added. Ansihagan brother belies police report The Gingoog City Police, in their special report this morning about Ansihagan’s mysterious disappearance, claimed that Ansihagan is not missing but rather hiding in the house of his brother, Pastor Manolo Ansihagan of the Missionary Baptist Church in Gingoog City. However, Manolo has denied knowing his brother's whereabouts. In an interview over mobile phone, Manolo told GMANews.TV that his brother said he would be lying low because of the death threats. "As to his whereabouts, I don’t know," Manolo insisted. The pastor added that his brother had previously contacted the local offices of the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) concerning the illegal logging and mining activities within their ancestral domain. Ansihagan’s letters of complaint Ansihagan, in his letter to the NCIP and the DENR, had asked both government offices to act on their behalf on reported alleged rampant illegal logging activities in their ancestral lands. "You as government agencies concerned on these issues threatening destruction of our ancestral lands had moral responsibility aside from your duly constitutional duties to look, investigate and take action on these pressing matters that threatened not only destruction of the environment but our lives," Ansihagan wrote, asserting that the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) failed to properly address the centuries-old inherent rights of indigenous peoples. "We remained poorest of the poor yet those who destroyed our ancestral lands are now the richest of the rich," Ansihagan said in his letters. Ansihagan also said that he had proof that even minors from indigenous communities were being exploited by the illegal loggers. "They are ordered in exchange of minimal fee to carry falcata logs in the absence of Carabaos which are costly to hire," Ansihagan claimed, reaffirming earlier rumors of rampant child labor practiced by illegal loggers in most logging areas in Misamis Oriental and the Caraga Region. "Their parents agree because they succumbed to poverty and dire needs to survive," Ansihagan concluded. Officials acknowledge receiving letters Mayette Makikis, deputy NCIP officer and Tribal Affairs Assistant of the Gingoog City NCIP office, confirmed to GMANews.TV that they had indeed received a complaint letter on January 14 signed by Ansihagan on behalf of the Baleguihan Higaonon Tribal Council concerning illegal logging within their ancestral lands. Julius Rojo of the local DENR office of Gingoog City also admitted that their office had received a similar letter from Ansihagan on January 5. When asked about what actions have been taken on Ansihagan's complaint, both officers deferred the matter to higher officials. Datu Bayhon Ansihagan, Ansihagan's uncle, said that the entire Ansihagan family is now worried about the disappearance of his nephew. - TJD, GMANews.TV