Slain forester to receive posthumous award

A SERIES of attacks on foresters prompted the government to order a crackdown on illegal logging in the Cordillera, the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon. RICO GONZALES /CONTRIBUTOR

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III will bestow a posthumous Dangal ng Bayan award on a woman forestry specialist, who was killed by a lone gunman in her office in Cagayan in February.

The two children of Melania Dirain, a widow, will receive the award, as well as a P200,000 check from the national government, on her behalf in ceremonies in Malacañang on Sept. 19.

Benjamin Tumaliuan, director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Cagayan Valley, thanked the Civil Service Commission for citing the courage and dedication of  Dirain, who was shot and killed in Sanchez Mira town in Cagayan on Feb. 7.

“This is a sort of consolation for us as we do our job in protecting our environment and natural resources,” he said.

Dirain, 46, was the second highest ranking officer in the community environment and natural resources office in Sanchez Mira, whose main task was the enforcement of forest protection laws.

Tumaliuan said Dirain was responsible for implementing the DENR’s coastal resources management program in northern Cagayan and the agency’s cacao production project in Calayan and Claveria towns.

Dirain, he said, was also instrumental in the documentation that led to the proclamation of the Callao Caves in Peñablanca town as a protected area.

Dirain was only about a month in her job when she was killed. Police arrested Adorable Caligan Jr. after Dirain’s sister identified him as the gunman from a footage of a closed-circuit television camera installed in her office at the DENR compound in Barangay Centro 2 in Sanchez Mira.

Dirain was talking to Isaias Cereniado, an office messenger, at past 7 p.m. when she was attacked. Cereniado was unhurt.

Earlier, the DENR offices in the Cordillera, the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon coordinated with the police and the military in launching a crackdown on “carabao logging” and kaingin (slash-and-burn farming).

The joint effort was prompted by a series of attacks on foresters, including Dirain’s murder, said Clarence Baguilat, DENR Cordillera director.

The four DENR regional offices have compiled information to identify the areas of illegal operations, the escape routes taken by loggers in the adjoining forest covers of the four regions, and the furniture markets which loggers supply, Baguilat said.