Opinion: Minoyan Fire Has Become a Feature of the Area
The provincial official should secure the services of the army and the police to
be able to track down those responsible for the burning of newly reforested
This was not the first time that had happened. Several years back a similar incident also occurred there. And previous to that another one. In short, it has become a habit for illegal settlers to clear the area whenever they find themselves hemmed in by the reforestation projects of both the government and the private sector. Jose Ma. Valencia, Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. chief of staff, need not really break his head trying to track down the perpetrators of these arson incidents. All he has to do is ask for the back records of the fires in the same area and, possibly, from there trace the identities of those responsible for the dastardly acts.
The EDC reforestation site, for example lost something like 45 hectares of three-year old trees, Valencia pointed out.
Police suspects that among those responsible for the fires that razed both several hectares of the provincial government’s projects and that of EDC were charcoal makers whom they had arrested last week.
The problem is that most of the trees are endemic varieties which are fast disappearing. And the projects cost millions of pesos.
That is why a determined crackdown on the arsonists must be made to warn all
others not to emulate them and set back the efforts by the government and the
private corporations to restore our deterioting forest cover.
* * *
If you remember, several months ago, I had chided Negros chief Alan Guisihan the
there had been no progress in the investigation into the series of killings in
Barangay Canlusong, of E.B. Magalona town.
Now, according to Supt. Samuel Mina, task force commander, bandit groups linked
to the series of killings there were reported to have targeted nine more
individuals for liquidation.
Now that shows they have become brazen because of police inefficiencies running
after the culprit. So far, the killings in Canlusong seem destined to the forget
file since nothing much has been done to unmask the culprits and arrest them.
That’s exactly why I had also alerted Guisihan to the failure of his command to bag Noel Ayalin, who had killed four kagawads of a barangay in Silay City. And another suspected killer of a man in Sagay City (Paraiso).
It seems that there are always excuses by the police like lack of logistics.
And, yet in the case of Ayalin, Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. had already
offered P500,000 for his arrest.
But the police say that he may be outside the province already and the police
does not have the capacity to chase after him.
In short, all we can do now is wait for the outcome of the police search for the
suspects. And then wait for them to commit some more crimes where the police
will have another excuse for failing to solve the problem.*
