ILAGAN, ISABELA -- AT LEAST seven Catholic priests in the province on Saturday staged a hunger strike to call on the government to strengthen its drive against illegal logging in Isabela.

Rev. Fr. John Couvreur, ecology desk head of the social action center of the Diocese of Ilagan, said he and six other priests led the day-long hunger strike at the St. Thomas de Aquinas Catholic parish in San Mariano to urge national government officials to act and stop the rampant illegal logging in Isabela.

The other priests were San Mariano town parish priest Fr. Edwin Dionisio, social action center head Fr. Antonio Ancheta, Fr. Peter Rambac, Fr. Marcial Bartolome, Fr. Ric Zeus Angobung and Fr. Satur Talosig.

Couvreur said tree cutters, locally known as bugadores, have been exploited by illegal logging financiers and their coddlers in the government.

Inconvenient truth

He said about 100 residents went to the San Mariano parish and skipped lunch on Saturday to sympathize with their cause.

He said the priests only drank water and fruit juice and skipped all meals on Saturday. Before they staged the hunger strike, the priests concelebrated Mass attended by at least 200 lay leaders, residents and members of various civic groups in the province.

A program held to complement the event featured a showing of former American Vice President Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” and a video presentation on aerial surveys done by nongovernment groups and members of the Isabela anti-illegal logging task force on the extent of destruction of forests in Isabela.

Poster making, oratorical and drama competitions on environmental protection were also held for students, Couvreur said.

Earlier, Church groups in Isabela launched a movement to support the government’s ongoing crackdown against logging activities in the forests of the Sierra Madre amid threats from illegal loggers.

Assassination plot

Couvreur said illegal logging financiers have launched a plot to kill him and Gov. Grace Padaca, as well as an all-out smear campaign against the task force.

“A plan has been hatched to liquidate me and the governor by hired killers because we put in danger the lucrative illegal business of prominent people who are behind the illegal logging activities in the province,” said Couvreur in a letter to priests, schools and nongovernment organizations.

He assailed the black propaganda being waged by illegal logging protectors, who, he said, have been portraying Padaca, the anti-illegal logging task force and the Catholic Church as antipoor because they are supposedly “taking away the livelihood of the poor.”

Padaca said threats from illegal loggers “felt more real.”

Villamor Visaya Jr. with reports from Melvin Gascon, Inquirer Northern Luzon