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BUTUAN CITY—Police officials are firm on filing charges against a disgruntled Manobo tribal chieftain and his followers who were responsible for the abduction of seven forest guards while monitoring illegal mining and timber poaching inside the Anticala-Taguibo watershed area here.
Chief Supt. Lino Calingasan, police chief for the Caraga region, said kidnapping charges were being readied against Andot Behing and his followers, mostly former communist rebels.
Calingasan’s move was in sharp contrast with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), which declined any court action.
Five guards, who were freed on Sunday after four days in captivity, signed affidavits desisting any criminal action against their captors.
Two others were freed a day after the Oct. 21 abduction.
But Calingasan downplayed the affidavits, saying he was determined to pursue the case against Behing, who went uncharged after he figured in six similar abductions involving DENR personnel in Agusan del Sur in the past years.
“Their affidavits were executed under pressure and threat by the abductors. We will go on with our case. This case would be a precedent against law violators,” Calingasan said.
Abner Caga, spokesperson of the multisectoral Task Force Watershed, welcomed the filing of charges against Behing to show that the government was determined to stamp out banditry.
“Nobody is above the law. The government must show that the law is applied to all and send message to lawless groups in Caraga that it means business,” Caga said.
The DENR’s reluctance has fueled speculation that the abduction was a mere ploy by corrupt environment officials hurt by antilogging and antimining campaigns to protect the watershed.
Several regional environment officials said to be in cahoots with the illegal loggers could be behind the seizure.
Edilberto Buiser, environment regional director, dismissed the allegations as unfounded.
Buiser said the captors agreed to release his men after the DENR crisis committee promised them that the agency would help resolve their demands.
“Although the release was unconditional, the DENR promised to them that we will really look into the resolution of their problems,” Buiser said.
Caga, however, warned Buiser not to give in to the demands of a “lawless group” which could only compromise the interests of the watershed.
“The government should not compromise our life support—the watershed. Giving in to Behing’s demand will only promote kidnapping and lawlessness in Caraga,” he said.
Aside from the removal of a station which monitors the transport of mineral ores and logs inside the watershed, Behing’s group also pressed for the cancellation of the community-based forest management agreements in the Sibagat area, the awarding of ancestral domain titles to Manobos and other indigenous groups in the area and the approval of customary farming.
The forest management agreement is a project of the DENR, under which people’s organizations or tribal communities are given authority to reforest, rehabilitate and develop upland timber areas for 25 years. Franklin A. Caliguid, Inquirer Mindanao
