Tribal group backs missing broadcaster’s campaign vs illegal logging

GINGOOG CITY- Tribal chieftain Romeo Ansihagan on Sunday said that majority of his more than 300 members, about 26 families, belonging to Baleguihan Higaonon Tribal Council support the cause of the missing broadcaster Emmanuel “Manny" Ansihagan against illegal logging in their ancestral domain. Before he went missing on January 14, Manny said he had been getting death threats for exposing in his radio program the rampant log smuggling in their place. He was last seen when he went to the police headquarters to report on the supposed threats to his life. In an interview with GMANews.TV, Romeo said that he and members of his tribe – those living within 4,225.34 hectares of National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)-registered ancestral domain – have for a long time waged "war" against illegal logging in their place. He said that the observations of broadcaster Manny about rampant log smuggling in their forested ancestral area were true, and that illegal logging activities were made possible by a supposed “connivance" of concerned government authorities with illegal loggers. He said that illegal loggers get government documents or permits to cut trees and transport timber even if logs come from a “wrong source." Chieftain Ansihagan said “wrong source" means that long-issued logging and log transport permits covering particular areas were being used in other areas. “In short, they are falsifying public documents because for instance in our area those logs coming out from our areas had no proper cutting permission from us and yet truckloads of logs were allowed to or not apprehended by authorities," Ansihagan told GMANews.TV, adding that this practice has been going on for nearly a year. Also, the chieftain said that his group supports the claims in the missing journalist's letters of complaint to the local NCIP and Department of Environment of Natural Resources (DENR). The letter said that illegal loggers from the nearby Caraga Region were cutting natural growth or even planted species without tribal council permission in their ancestral lands and illegally transporting the logs to nearby Agusan provinces. Child labor Chieftain Ansihagan also said he witnessed how Higaonon children were hired for a measly P20 per log for a 2-kilometer haul. Instead of using Carabao, log traders use children to cut on hauling cost. “I received complaints from school teachers in our area that attendance of these Higaonon school children suffered because they no longer attend classes. You find them as young as nine years old to 14 years old hauling logs for a fee thus they are aptly now being tagged as “Batang Karabaw," Ansihagan said. “These kids carry on their shoulders round falcata logs for a distance of about 1 to 2 kilometers," Ansihagan said. In his letters to local DENR and NCIP last January 5, 2010 and January 14, 2010 respectively (marked “officially received"), broadcaster Manny Ansihagan called on the agencies to look into illegal logging in their place. The letter also mentioned how Manny's constant complaining to government officials for three months had fallen on deaf ears. On the other hand, Chieftain Ansihagan requested an investigation on the “Batang Karabaw" issue, saying Higaonon children should be protected by the state from child labor as provided for in the Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights, of which the Philippines is a signatory. Meanwhile, Higaonon woman leader Bae Naha and Tribal Datu Eladio Tinaghanaw, officials of the Baleguihan Higaonon Tribal Council also confirmed to GMANews.TV that child labor in logging operations in ancestral areas is rampant. "But we can't do anything except advise parents but parents, too, were helpless because their children, due to the worst kind of poverty situation, were forced to do menial jobs to help their families cope with their day to day living requirements," the two Higaonon leaders said. Missing broadcaster As of this posting, Broadcaster Ansihagan has remained missing. He, as well as two others had been receiving threats since his DXRS colleague, Arecio Padrigao Sr. was slain last November 17, 2008. [See: Threats hound slain radioman's colleagues] Manny was last seen on January 14, 2010, when he went to the local police to report threats he had been receiving to stop reporting about illegal logging activities in the province. [See: Misamis journalist still missing] The death threats, for which Gingoog City Chief of Police Senior Supt. Leony Roy Ga formed an investigative team to look into, were also confirmed by Ansihagan’s relatives, who have been worried since his disappearance. One of the text messages sent to the broadcaster read: "Hununga imo pakigbisog batok logging ug mining basin baya mapareha ka sa mga gipangpatay nga tribal datu (Stop your struggle against logging and mining or end up like the other tribal leaders who were killed)." - with Carmela Lapeña/LBG, GMANews.TV