Masungi rangers file frustrated murder raps vs resort owner, companions
MANILA, Philippines — Two park rangers of the Masungi Georeserve Foundation in Rizal have filed a frustrated murder complaint against a resort owner and his companions, nearly three weeks after they were shot.
Forest rangers Khukan Maas and Melvin Akhmad filed the complaint before the Rizal Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on Friday.
Maas and Akhmad, who were stationed in a reforestation site of Masungi, were attacked on the evening of July 24.
The shooting happened at a ranger station near GSB resort in Sitio San Roque in Brgy. Pinugay, Baras. The resort is one of the infrastructures said to be illegally occupying forestland in the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape.
Maas was shot in the neck, while Akhmad was shot in the head. The two are now recovering and under monitoring.
Named in the complaint of Maas and Akhmad were the resort owner and his eight other companions.
Call for protection
The rangers reiterated the foundation’s call for security assistance from national government agencies.
“Ang panawagan naming ay hustisya at proteksyon dahil patuloy ang pagbabanta sa amin at sa mga kasamahan naming nagbabantay pa rin sa bundok. Wala pa hong security assistance,” Maas said.
Police General Guillermo Eleazar, Philippine National Police chief, earlier said Masungi rangers will be given additional security. The shooting occurred near a station of the PNP Special Action Forces.
Prior to the attack, rangers stationed in the Upper Marikina Watershed had received “multiple and sustained threats and harassment” following the checking of illegal activities in the protected area through patrolling, reporting, and installation of ranger stations and checkpoints, Masungi said.
More than week before the incident, the Department of the Interior and Local Government recommended the filing of criminal and administrative charges against several local officials and establishments over encroachments in the Upper Marikina Watershed.
Watershed under siege
Quarrying, land grabbing, timber cutting and encroachments continue to persist in the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape, which was declared a protected area only in 2011.
Conservationists have stressed that the Upper Marikina Watershed is critical as it regulates water flow, and serves as a habitat of threatened flora and fauna and ancestral domains of indigenous peoples.
Masungi is undertaking a reforestation initiative inside the watershed in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
DENR Calabarzon Director Nilo Tamoria, in a letter to the foundation, proposed to deputize Masungi’s rangers as environment and natural resource officers to protect them and give them authority.
Billie Dumaliang, Masungi Georeserve Foundation trustee and advocacy officer, stressed the security assistance they are seeking is urgent because “the danger is clear and present.”
“The immediate and practical solution is security deployment from those who are more capable of maintaining peace and order, such as the army or police,” Dumaliang told Philstar.com.
“Security threats which clearly are traceable to illegal occupants and illegal activities within the protected area are the obligation of the DENR in the project, and the unique thing they can do to help civil society partners. Park rangers should be able to plant and nurture new trees and residual forest in peace,” she added.
- Latest
- Trending
