Environmental activist shot dead in Bukidnon

Manila, Philippines -  The environmental group Kalikasan – People’s Network for the Environment (PNE) has condemned the killing of an environmental activist in Bukidnon.

Margarito Cabal, leader of Task Force Save Pulangi, which is campaigning against the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Pulangi River, was killed by an unidentified gunman in Barangay Palma Kibawe last Wednesday.

Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE, said Cabal is the 13th environmental activist killed under the Aquino administration.

Records from the Task Force-Justice for Environmental Defenders show that recent killings include tribal leader Jimmy Liguyon who was gunned down last March and Fr. Pops Tentorio in October 2011.

Nine of the 13 cases of killing of environmental activists under Aquino occurred in Mindanao.

“Impunity towards ecologists is growing by leaps and bounds in Mindanao, presumably because of the torrent of destructive mining and energy projects in the region. Government policies on protecting foreign investments and engaging in counter-insurgency are overlapping exactly because both are meant to undermine oppositions to these dirty projects,” said Bautista.

The military earlier tagged Cabal as a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).

“This has been the same modus operandi in the killing of other anti-large dam and environmental activists. Peasant leader Jose Doton and indigenous Dumagat leader Nicanor De los Santos were tagged as communist supporters or NPA members before they were killed. In most of these cases of killings, military forces and agents were the suspected perpetrators,” Bautista said.

Doton and De los Santos were shot dead in 2006 and 2001, respectively.

“The increasing number of harassments and killings of environmental activists is a result of intensifying militarization under the anti-insurgency Oplan Bayanihan of the Aquino administration. It is implemented particularly in areas where there is a huge corporate investment to exploit our natural resources, at the same time strongly opposed by advocates and communities,” the group said.

Bautista said the killings would not stop as long as the Aquino administration pushes through with Oplan Bayanihan and projects like large dams and large-scale mining.