Be ‘proactive’ vs threats to park rangers – Masungi to DENR
FOREST OF FEAR? A team of scientists, conservationists, forest rangers, and volunteers sets out on a biodiversity research expedition in Masungi Georeserve in Rizal province, in this photo taken on Jan. 25. The project is carried out amid the increasing dangers faced by the rangers from groups linked to illegal construction projects in the area. (Photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The Masungi Georeserve Foundation is calling on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to make a clear stand and condemn the violent attacks against park rangers and threats against other members of the community allegedly committed by resort owners in the reforestation area.
“Our lives are in danger,” Ann Dumaliang, trustee and project manager of the foundation, told the Inquirer on Tuesday, lamenting the lack of “proactive action” from the DENR.
Dumaliang said the DENR had been taking a “neutral” stand on the illegal occupation of a forest reservation, telling the foundation that they would not intervene in what the department had referred to as a “land dispute.”
The foundation signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the DENR in 2017 under the late Environment Secretary Gina Lopez.
The MOA was intended to continue efforts to protect and conserve the 2,700-hectare land around Masungi Georeserve, which is largely in Baras, Rizal, but includes some parts of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape, Dumaliang said.
7 assaulted by 30
According to Dumaliang, the DENR has the “contractual obligation” to evict the “illegal resorts, quarry companies and other illegal occupants” within the conservation project area.
She said seven Masungi park rangers, who were eating in a canteen, were assaulted on Friday last week by around 30 people believed to be working for owners of allegedly illegal resorts in the area. Two rangers had to be hospitalized.
“This would not have happened if the DENR had just removed them [illegal occupants] from here. This somehow drove these people to become violent rioters,” Dumaliang said. “[The DENR] is very concerned in keeping a neutral position and weighing things on this issue.”
The DENR did not immediately respond to the Inquirer’s request for comment.
Dumaliang also said resort owners were flaunting what they claimed was an endorsement from the DENR that somehow solidified the owners’ occupancy of parts of the protected area, despite the department’s own cease-and-desist orders against their “continued harmful operation.”
Request to PNP chief
“Emboldened by the questionable endorsements and advised that only Masungi [Foundation] stands in the way of their businesses, the resort owners embarked on a comprehensive disinformation, hate and violent campaign including the Friday assault to stop the conservation project of Masungi and DENR in the area,” Dumaliang added.
The foundation wrote Philippine National Police chief Dionardo Carlos on Tuesday to follow up on its Feb. 7 request for the designation of an on-site police partner in the Masungi Geopark Project, she said.
“Anarchy and lawlessness rule the day,” Ben Dumaliang, her father and president of the Masungi Georeserve Foundation, said in a letter to Carlos obtained by the Inquirer. “There is a convenient—but mistaken—police excuse not to intervene claiming it is a land dispute issue.”
“Neither is Masungi [Foundation] engaged in land grabbing or in business as the illegal quarries and resorts falsely portray,” he wrote.
Dumaliang also said that her community had been receiving threats allegedly from owners of resorts and illegal structures in the area.
Early last year, a cardboard box containing bullets was left outside the foundation’s office, a form of grave threat. Months later, two park rangers were wounded after they were shot at by men suspected to be working for the resorts.
“Violence is never okay here,” she said. “We need to hold these people accountable already.”
The foundation has reported the threats to the Baras police, but they were told to instead file complaints with the barangay and the prosecutor’s office against the people whom they believe were responsible for the threats and intimidation.
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