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ENVIRONMENT Secretary Angelo Reyes on Thursday called on
the National Police to intensify the campaign against
“environmental terrorists” following the killing of
another Department of Environment and Natural Resources
employee in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur.
Reyes
said a thorough investigation is in order to identify
and arrest the killers of Forester Ray Jugbang Baltazar.
Baltazar,
who was gunned down on July 2, is the fourth Environment
department employee to be killed by suspected illegal
loggers this year.
On April
22, Earth Day, DENR investigator Audy Angchangco was
shot dead in Lucena City.
Baltazar
was walking on his way to work at about 7:45 a.m. when
he was shot by two still-unidentified assailants in
front of the Surigao del Sur Electric Cooperative
office. He was survived by his wife Paulina Gruyal, an
employee of the Bislig City Agriculture Office and
daughter Arbee Elleanor.
Branding
the killers as “environmental terrorists,” Reyes ordered
the DENR’s Regional Office in Caraga to cooperate with
the police to identify and arrest the perpetrators.
“With
his death, the department is again poorer by one. But
this makes us stronger in our resolve to protect the
environment. The only way to stop these killings is to
win the war against environmental terrorists. This we
owe to our fallen heroes, and our nation,” Reyes said.
Baltazar,
had been acting as City Environment and Natural
Resources Office (Cenro) prosecutor since DENR regional
executive director Benjamin Tumaliuan launched an
all-out forest protection campaign five years ago.
A native
of Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, Baltazar joined the DENR
in 1997 as a contractual forester and site officer.
Baltazar
held the position of Forester 1, serving as chief of
CENRO-Bislig City’s Forest Protection Unit. At the same
time, Baltazar was also the Cenro resident ombudsman. |
