By MANNY LOSTE
www.nordis.net
BAGUIO CITY — Friends and colleagues of the late Leonard Co from the academe and the non-government organization (NGO) community here came together noontime of November 25 at the Bulwagang Juan Luna, UP Baguio to pay tribute to his life and contribution to his field of specialization and the effort to promote grassroots based scientific knowledge.
The noted botanist was once enrolled at the UP Baguio during the mid 1980s for an undergraduate course in science. He never finished all the academic requirements for a bachelors’ degree as he spent large part of his time doing field research work eventually coming up with the book “Common Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera” even as an undergraduate.
In fact, it was only in 2008 that Leonard Co was granted a bachelor’s degree in science by UP Diliman in recognition of his field work and research contribution which could have easily earned him a doctorate degree. His students admired his passion and dedication to his field of specialization, learning much from his knowledge as well as his exemplary attitude in scientific study.
The people with whom he worked with remember his work style which somehow reflected the activist’s attitude in him of being “insatiable in learning and tireless in teaching.” He was a veritable walking encyclopedia of botanical knowledge which he sought to share with those around him at every possible opportunity.
Even as he did so, he sought out the old medicine men in the the Cordillera to learn from their rich reservoir of traditional knowledge of medicinal plants. This knowledge was eventually distilled and published in the works of Leonard Co, making them accessible to a wider audience of interested researchers and practitioners.
On hand to acknowledge the tribute paid to the memory of the late Leonard Co were his parents and siblings as well as his wife Glenda. They expressed gratitude for the fond memories shared by Leonard’s friends and colleagues here in the Cordillera while expressing the fervent hope that justice will be done to Leonard Co and his companions.
Co together with two of his guides were gunned down last November 15 in a forested area in Hinanga, Leyte while doing field work for a Lopez-owned company. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claims that the noted botanist and his companions were killed in a crossfire in an encounter with New People’s Army (NPA). Doubts have been raised regarding the AFP’s facile claim of death by crossfire. Thus the Department of Justice (DoJ) has formed a task force to dig deeper into the untimely death of Co and his companions. # nordis.net
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Citizen-Based Fact-Finding Mission Off to Probe Botanist’s Death (PR)
Bulatlat.com
PRESS RELEASE
26 November 2010
An independent citizen-based fact-finding mission, endorsed by the family of the country’s top botanist, the late Leonardo Co, and led by the Justice for Leonardo Co Movement, sets off for Kananga, Leyte, today to probe the real cause and circumstances of the death of the renowned scientist and his two companions.
The fact-finding mission is composed of representatives from the Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM), in coordination with friends and families of the victims, environmental groups the Philippine Native Plant Conservation Society (PNPCS), the Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC), the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, the human rights alliance KARAPATAN, the Advocates for Science and Technology for the People (Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan or AGHAM), Center for Environmental Concerns, the U.P. Institute of Biology, forensic experts and lawyers, as well as Bayan. Also participating are UP College of Medicine professor Dr. Romy Quijano, botanist Anthony Arbias, ecologist and former Visayas State University President Dr. Pacencia Milan, KARAPATAN human rights lawyer Atty. Kathrina Castillo of Karapatan-Eastern Visayas and Mr. Dennis Abarientos and four human rights workers of the Karapatan-Central Visayas Region. Other participating organizations are the church-based Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) and some media organizations.
The mission will be conducted on November 26-28, 2010. It is headed by Dr. Giovanni Tapang of AGHAM.
“This mission becomes more imperative because of the AFP’s insistence that what happened was a ‘legitimate military operation’ and that the local command of the 19th IB-PA also insisted that Mr. Leonard Co and his companions were killed in an alleged ‘crossfire’ in an encounter with New People’s Army rebels. The local police has already suggested that the bullets that killed Co were not in the Army’s armaments. That is why we are very much worried that the death of the country’s finest scientist in the field would be whitewashed and covered-up by state authorities,” Karapatan said.
Co was conducting a biodiversity research commissioned by Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp (EDC) in the Manawan Kananga Watershed in Leyte, along with four other companions when Armed Forces of the Philippines troops under the Philippine Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the 802nd Infantry Brigade shot at the team.
Sofronio Cortez, a forest guard of the EDC-Environmental Management Division, and Julius Borromeo, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association (ToFA) were killed along with Co.
Policarpio Balute, a ToFA member, and Roniño Gibe, a contractual forester of EDC’s corporate social responsibility department, survived the assault. Karapatan expressed concern that the survivors and their families might be threatened by the military as in similar cases where the AFP is involved in the killings.
Reference:
Marie Hilao-Enriquez
Chairperson
PRESS RELEASE
26 November 2010
An independent citizen-based fact-finding mission, endorsed by the family of the country’s top botanist, the late Leonardo Co, and led by the Justice for Leonardo Co Movement, sets off for Kananga, Leyte, today to probe the real cause and circumstances of the death of the renowned scientist and his two companions.
The fact-finding mission is composed of representatives from the Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM), in coordination with friends and families of the victims, environmental groups the Philippine Native Plant Conservation Society (PNPCS), the Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC), the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, the human rights alliance KARAPATAN, the Advocates for Science and Technology for the People (Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan or AGHAM), Center for Environmental Concerns, the U.P. Institute of Biology, forensic experts and lawyers, as well as Bayan. Also participating are UP College of Medicine professor Dr. Romy Quijano, botanist Anthony Arbias, ecologist and former Visayas State University President Dr. Pacencia Milan, KARAPATAN human rights lawyer Atty. Kathrina Castillo of Karapatan-Eastern Visayas and Mr. Dennis Abarientos and four human rights workers of the Karapatan-Central Visayas Region. Other participating organizations are the church-based Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) and some media organizations.
The mission will be conducted on November 26-28, 2010. It is headed by Dr. Giovanni Tapang of AGHAM.
“This mission becomes more imperative because of the AFP’s insistence that what happened was a ‘legitimate military operation’ and that the local command of the 19th IB-PA also insisted that Mr. Leonard Co and his companions were killed in an alleged ‘crossfire’ in an encounter with New People’s Army rebels. The local police has already suggested that the bullets that killed Co were not in the Army’s armaments. That is why we are very much worried that the death of the country’s finest scientist in the field would be whitewashed and covered-up by state authorities,” Karapatan said.
Co was conducting a biodiversity research commissioned by Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp (EDC) in the Manawan Kananga Watershed in Leyte, along with four other companions when Armed Forces of the Philippines troops under the Philippine Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the 802nd Infantry Brigade shot at the team.
Sofronio Cortez, a forest guard of the EDC-Environmental Management Division, and Julius Borromeo, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association (ToFA) were killed along with Co.
Policarpio Balute, a ToFA member, and Roniño Gibe, a contractual forester of EDC’s corporate social responsibility department, survived the assault. Karapatan expressed concern that the survivors and their families might be threatened by the military as in similar cases where the AFP is involved in the killings.
Reference:
Marie Hilao-Enriquez
Chairperson
Investigators set out to probe botanist’s death
UCAnews.com
Published Date: November 26, 2010
By D'Jay Lazaro, Manila
An independent fact-finding team endorsed by the family of killed botanist Leonardo Co, left Manila today for the province of Leyte in the central Philippines to investigate the scientist’s death.
Several civil society and human rights groups joined the mission.
“We welcome Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s order to probe the death… We acknowledge her leadership and independence in the investigation of cases,” said Dr. Giovanni Tapang of the “Justice for Leonard Co Movement.”
Tapang, however, said his group invokes their right “to seek, receive and impart information on the circumstances of what we believe is another senseless killing of our brothers in a very harmless act of field research.”
Co was commissioned by the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) to carry out research in the forests of Leyte when government troops allegedly shot Co and his companions.
Forest guard Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julius Borromeo were killed with Co, the 36th environmentalist killed since 2001 and the eighth for 2010.
Survivors Policarpio Balute, a farmer, and Roniño Gibe, a forest guard, said there was no encounter between soldiers and communist rebels as claimed by the military.
“The significance of our independent mission is to uncover the facts for ourselves and provide a citizen-based account of what happened and preempt possible attempts to whitewash the case,” said Tapang.
He said they cannot just wait for the government to give justice to the victims and their families.
Published Date: November 26, 2010
By D'Jay Lazaro, Manila
An independent fact-finding team endorsed by the family of killed botanist Leonardo Co, left Manila today for the province of Leyte in the central Philippines to investigate the scientist’s death.
Several civil society and human rights groups joined the mission.
“We welcome Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s order to probe the death… We acknowledge her leadership and independence in the investigation of cases,” said Dr. Giovanni Tapang of the “Justice for Leonard Co Movement.”
Tapang, however, said his group invokes their right “to seek, receive and impart information on the circumstances of what we believe is another senseless killing of our brothers in a very harmless act of field research.”
Co was commissioned by the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) to carry out research in the forests of Leyte when government troops allegedly shot Co and his companions.
Forest guard Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julius Borromeo were killed with Co, the 36th environmentalist killed since 2001 and the eighth for 2010.
Survivors Policarpio Balute, a farmer, and Roniño Gibe, a forest guard, said there was no encounter between soldiers and communist rebels as claimed by the military.
“The significance of our independent mission is to uncover the facts for ourselves and provide a citizen-based account of what happened and preempt possible attempts to whitewash the case,” said Tapang.
He said they cannot just wait for the government to give justice to the victims and their families.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Biodiversity Heroes
Written by: Lindo, Jean
Mindanao Times
Thursday, 25 November 2010
TODAY, November 25, 2010, is the commemoration of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. But this is a big day for Biodiversity in Davao City. While the women will hold a commemorative activity fighting gender-related violence, the Department of Environment, Department of Health and other government agencies together with Davao City Chamber of Commerce, Inc. and the Davao Medical Society will hold a Biodiversity Summit.
Since Biodiversity is the agendum of the day for the city, I will take the liberty of writing about the Heroes of Biodiversity, the people who do real work for the environment. They may be called the unsung heroes, but being unsung is no big deal for people like them. What is big deal is they are being treated as enemies simply because there are people who would not tolerate and appreciate intellectual diversity in the same way that biodiversity should be tolerated.
They do real work. Others do greenwash. Greenwash is the term whereby a product or a concept is deceptively introduced as green even if it is not. An example of greenwash would be the Green Revolution. That program was everything but green and everything but a revolution. It promoted the products of the big corporations which did not promote sustainable agriculture and was, in fact promoting polluting technologies. And it neither promotes change that translated to people’s empowerment, not even for the farmers, nor brings about social equity contrary to what a revolution is.
One such hero was Leonard Co, a brilliant botanist who was killed while doing the work for the conservation project of the Lopez-owned Energy Development Corporation. As the story goes, his team had the military clearance to enter the forest. He was with a forest guard, and guides who were farmers. Leonard was allegedly shot by a group of soldiers and he was even heard by the witnesses begging for mercy. The two others managed to escape the bullets.
I do not know Leonard Co personally, but I just happened to meet the guy while doing his usual work with the plants. I hosted his team while I was a medical student. I had this impression that he was a nerd and I noticed that he was reviewing his own book on plants and was writing his notes using Chinese characters. He studied tirelessly. I was a medical student then struggling with my medical book and retired much earlier than he did. I envied him for his energy, being able to continue reading and writing notes.
When I graduated from the medical school I worked with an Urban-based Community-based Health Program (CBHP), his books on medicinal plants became handy. It had the common name of each plant, the different names called by each plant in the different parts of the Philippines, the scientific name, the active ingredient, the therapeutic dose, the warnings on its toxicities, etc. I thought it was an amazing book and it helped a lot. There were instances when I was called by colleagues who started their residency training program and those who were moonlighting in the non-training hospitals. There were patients that exhibited toxicities. I remember one woman who took too much concentration of adelfa extract thinking that the plant had abortifacient effect. She sought admission at Calinan General Hospital (now Isaac T Robillo Memorial Hospital) then was transferred to the Davao Medical Center (then and now, Southern Philippines Medical Center). My colleague called me up to check for the active ingredient of adelfa which turned out to be digitalis. I called my colleague for her to be able to transmit the information to those managing the patient at DMC. The patient probably died manifesting the complications of digitalis toxicity.
I got to be familiar with the character of the author through a common friend who had the chance to work with him in Baguio. He was always remembered. Here was one brilliant person who contributed a lot in the field of medicine. It was his philosophy that the people should have access to health care and that the people in the underserved areas should have access to the medical knowledge and be able to utilize the plants when health care got to be too expensive and inaccessible to the poor. He was for peoples science. He was one of those group of scientists concerned about the proprietary rights of the people is the communities.
All of those involved in community health development work are still mourning as of this writing. People are raging why this brilliant individual had to be killed as a result of what seemed to be senseless paranoia. He maybe nameless and faceless to his killers, but to the scientific circle, environmentalists, development workers, and the people in the communities, his worth was more than the whole responsible battalion in Leyte. This rage inside me makes me think that if bullets had brain, they probably would have turned the other way. A meatflower, Rafflesia leonardi, was actually named after Leonard Co.
Another individual I would like to write about is an IP (Indigenous People) advocate and an environmentalist. Jean Marie Ferraris, for her great work on the environment and biodiversity had been subjected to harassment. She had been detained along with other environmentalists in Indonesia. Just recently she was again victim of red tagging. I came across a press release by Asian Human Rights Commission which stated that the communist label on an activist is a prelude to murder.
I had the honor to provide anesthesia care to her. I could not imagine why a gentle soul yet so courageous, has to be a target. She is an IP advocate and mining activist. She knows the implications of unbridled mining activities to biodiversity.
On this day when all peoples eyes in Davao are on the Biodiversity Summit at Marco Polo Hotel, I pay tribute to the two exemplary
individuals who do actual work for biodiversity beyond lip service. I swear they are not in this summit. Leonard Co is dead. Jean Marie may be alive but on doubtful security.
They are people who worked beyond conservation. They are gifted with the wisdom that biodiversity is also social justice issue.
Unfortunately, they are also among the endangered species.
Mindanao Times
Thursday, 25 November 2010
TODAY, November 25, 2010, is the commemoration of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. But this is a big day for Biodiversity in Davao City. While the women will hold a commemorative activity fighting gender-related violence, the Department of Environment, Department of Health and other government agencies together with Davao City Chamber of Commerce, Inc. and the Davao Medical Society will hold a Biodiversity Summit.
Since Biodiversity is the agendum of the day for the city, I will take the liberty of writing about the Heroes of Biodiversity, the people who do real work for the environment. They may be called the unsung heroes, but being unsung is no big deal for people like them. What is big deal is they are being treated as enemies simply because there are people who would not tolerate and appreciate intellectual diversity in the same way that biodiversity should be tolerated.
They do real work. Others do greenwash. Greenwash is the term whereby a product or a concept is deceptively introduced as green even if it is not. An example of greenwash would be the Green Revolution. That program was everything but green and everything but a revolution. It promoted the products of the big corporations which did not promote sustainable agriculture and was, in fact promoting polluting technologies. And it neither promotes change that translated to people’s empowerment, not even for the farmers, nor brings about social equity contrary to what a revolution is.
One such hero was Leonard Co, a brilliant botanist who was killed while doing the work for the conservation project of the Lopez-owned Energy Development Corporation. As the story goes, his team had the military clearance to enter the forest. He was with a forest guard, and guides who were farmers. Leonard was allegedly shot by a group of soldiers and he was even heard by the witnesses begging for mercy. The two others managed to escape the bullets.
I do not know Leonard Co personally, but I just happened to meet the guy while doing his usual work with the plants. I hosted his team while I was a medical student. I had this impression that he was a nerd and I noticed that he was reviewing his own book on plants and was writing his notes using Chinese characters. He studied tirelessly. I was a medical student then struggling with my medical book and retired much earlier than he did. I envied him for his energy, being able to continue reading and writing notes.
When I graduated from the medical school I worked with an Urban-based Community-based Health Program (CBHP), his books on medicinal plants became handy. It had the common name of each plant, the different names called by each plant in the different parts of the Philippines, the scientific name, the active ingredient, the therapeutic dose, the warnings on its toxicities, etc. I thought it was an amazing book and it helped a lot. There were instances when I was called by colleagues who started their residency training program and those who were moonlighting in the non-training hospitals. There were patients that exhibited toxicities. I remember one woman who took too much concentration of adelfa extract thinking that the plant had abortifacient effect. She sought admission at Calinan General Hospital (now Isaac T Robillo Memorial Hospital) then was transferred to the Davao Medical Center (then and now, Southern Philippines Medical Center). My colleague called me up to check for the active ingredient of adelfa which turned out to be digitalis. I called my colleague for her to be able to transmit the information to those managing the patient at DMC. The patient probably died manifesting the complications of digitalis toxicity.
I got to be familiar with the character of the author through a common friend who had the chance to work with him in Baguio. He was always remembered. Here was one brilliant person who contributed a lot in the field of medicine. It was his philosophy that the people should have access to health care and that the people in the underserved areas should have access to the medical knowledge and be able to utilize the plants when health care got to be too expensive and inaccessible to the poor. He was for peoples science. He was one of those group of scientists concerned about the proprietary rights of the people is the communities.
All of those involved in community health development work are still mourning as of this writing. People are raging why this brilliant individual had to be killed as a result of what seemed to be senseless paranoia. He maybe nameless and faceless to his killers, but to the scientific circle, environmentalists, development workers, and the people in the communities, his worth was more than the whole responsible battalion in Leyte. This rage inside me makes me think that if bullets had brain, they probably would have turned the other way. A meatflower, Rafflesia leonardi, was actually named after Leonard Co.
Another individual I would like to write about is an IP (Indigenous People) advocate and an environmentalist. Jean Marie Ferraris, for her great work on the environment and biodiversity had been subjected to harassment. She had been detained along with other environmentalists in Indonesia. Just recently she was again victim of red tagging. I came across a press release by Asian Human Rights Commission which stated that the communist label on an activist is a prelude to murder.
I had the honor to provide anesthesia care to her. I could not imagine why a gentle soul yet so courageous, has to be a target. She is an IP advocate and mining activist. She knows the implications of unbridled mining activities to biodiversity.
On this day when all peoples eyes in Davao are on the Biodiversity Summit at Marco Polo Hotel, I pay tribute to the two exemplary
individuals who do actual work for biodiversity beyond lip service. I swear they are not in this summit. Leonard Co is dead. Jean Marie may be alive but on doubtful security.
They are people who worked beyond conservation. They are gifted with the wisdom that biodiversity is also social justice issue.
Unfortunately, they are also among the endangered species.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
De Lima orders probe of botanist’s death
By Marlon Ramos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:43:00 11/24/2010
MANILA, Philippines -- Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the mystery surrounding the death of noted botanist Leonardo Co and two others in Kananga, Leyte, last week.
Authorities earlier said Co and two of his companions were caught in crossfire between communist rebels and government soldiers in a forested area in Kananga town.
In a department order, De Lima created a three-member panel of Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors to conduct a fact-finding inquiry on the incident.
“We can’t always leave (the investigation) to the (Armed Forces of the Philippines). No matter how they do their jobs, there will always be suspicions,” she said at the sidelines of the 7th national congress of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in Quezon City.
According to De Lima, the panel may summon personalities, including Armed Forces officials, to attend hearings and answer clarificatory questions.
“We need to remove the cloud of suspicions regarding Co’s death,” she said.
A biodiversity consultant of the Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp., Co was reportedly gathering tree samples when he and two of his four companions were shot.
The New People’s Army and the Armed Forces in Leyte had accused each other of firing the shots that killed Co and his companions.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:43:00 11/24/2010
MANILA, Philippines -- Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the mystery surrounding the death of noted botanist Leonardo Co and two others in Kananga, Leyte, last week.
Authorities earlier said Co and two of his companions were caught in crossfire between communist rebels and government soldiers in a forested area in Kananga town.
In a department order, De Lima created a three-member panel of Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors to conduct a fact-finding inquiry on the incident.
“We can’t always leave (the investigation) to the (Armed Forces of the Philippines). No matter how they do their jobs, there will always be suspicions,” she said at the sidelines of the 7th national congress of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in Quezon City.
According to De Lima, the panel may summon personalities, including Armed Forces officials, to attend hearings and answer clarificatory questions.
“We need to remove the cloud of suspicions regarding Co’s death,” she said.
A biodiversity consultant of the Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp., Co was reportedly gathering tree samples when he and two of his four companions were shot.
The New People’s Army and the Armed Forces in Leyte had accused each other of firing the shots that killed Co and his companions.
UP forensic experts to autopsy slain botanist’s companions
By Elvie Roman-Roa
Inquirer Visayas
First Posted 12:21:00 11/24/2010
ORMOC CITY, Philippines – University of the Philippines forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun performed autopsies on the companions of botanist Leonard Co who the military claimed died in the crossfire of a skirmish between government security forces and communist rebels in Leyte last November 15.
Fortun, assisted by Dr. Maria Cecilia Lim and Dr. Reynaldo Dizon of UP, had been tasked to examine the cadavers Energy Development Corp. (EDC) forest guard Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julio Borromeo as part of the joint undertaking of the Commission on Human Rights, the EDC and the UP.
In an interview late Tuesday evening, Fortun said she had requested for X-ray examinations on the bodies of Cortez and Borromeo to pinpoint the exact location of the bullets.
There were 12 X-ray scans taken of Cortez's body and another 10 on Borromeo's at the Ormoc District Hospital Tuesday morning.
The bodies of Cortez and Borromeo were temporarily taken from their wake in their homes in Barangay (village) Halacnitan, Baybay, Leyte and Barangay Tongonan, Ormoc City, respectively, for the forensic autopsies.
Fortun said the autopsies, which was conducted at the V. Rama Funeral Homes, began at 2:30 p.m. and were completed at 7:30 p.m.
She declined to give her findings, however, saying more investigation was to be done.
Fortun said the X-ray scans helped them a lot and that without these, they would have had difficulty in finding the bullets in the bodies of Cortez and Borromeo.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Army 19th Infantry Battalion surrendered nine firearms to the Kananga police station at 6:35 p.m. Saturday, according to the police blotter.
Corporal Nelson Solayao, 19th IB’s supply officer, was the one who surrendered the firearms to the police.
The Kananga police had asked the battalion commander to turn over the firearms used by the soldiers who figured in the alleged encounter with the New People's Army that resulted in the death of Co, Cortez and Borromeo in Barangay (village) Lim-ao, Kananga.
The nine firearms, all M-16 with one of them equipped with a grenade launcher, will be taken to the Philippine National Police regional laboratory in Tacloban City gunpowder residue test and ballistic examination.
Inquirer Visayas
First Posted 12:21:00 11/24/2010
ORMOC CITY, Philippines – University of the Philippines forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun performed autopsies on the companions of botanist Leonard Co who the military claimed died in the crossfire of a skirmish between government security forces and communist rebels in Leyte last November 15.
Fortun, assisted by Dr. Maria Cecilia Lim and Dr. Reynaldo Dizon of UP, had been tasked to examine the cadavers Energy Development Corp. (EDC) forest guard Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julio Borromeo as part of the joint undertaking of the Commission on Human Rights, the EDC and the UP.
In an interview late Tuesday evening, Fortun said she had requested for X-ray examinations on the bodies of Cortez and Borromeo to pinpoint the exact location of the bullets.
There were 12 X-ray scans taken of Cortez's body and another 10 on Borromeo's at the Ormoc District Hospital Tuesday morning.
The bodies of Cortez and Borromeo were temporarily taken from their wake in their homes in Barangay (village) Halacnitan, Baybay, Leyte and Barangay Tongonan, Ormoc City, respectively, for the forensic autopsies.
Fortun said the autopsies, which was conducted at the V. Rama Funeral Homes, began at 2:30 p.m. and were completed at 7:30 p.m.
She declined to give her findings, however, saying more investigation was to be done.
Fortun said the X-ray scans helped them a lot and that without these, they would have had difficulty in finding the bullets in the bodies of Cortez and Borromeo.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Army 19th Infantry Battalion surrendered nine firearms to the Kananga police station at 6:35 p.m. Saturday, according to the police blotter.
Corporal Nelson Solayao, 19th IB’s supply officer, was the one who surrendered the firearms to the police.
The Kananga police had asked the battalion commander to turn over the firearms used by the soldiers who figured in the alleged encounter with the New People's Army that resulted in the death of Co, Cortez and Borromeo in Barangay (village) Lim-ao, Kananga.
The nine firearms, all M-16 with one of them equipped with a grenade launcher, will be taken to the Philippine National Police regional laboratory in Tacloban City gunpowder residue test and ballistic examination.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Independent group to probe death of botanist Leonardo Co
Remate Tonight
November 23, 2010
A CITIZEN-BASED fact-finding mission has been organized in Kananga, Leyte to investigate the killings of botanist Leonard Co and his companions.
The mission will “establish the facts about the incident,” said Dr. Giovanni Tapang, chairperson of the Samahan ng Nagtataguyod ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan or AGHAM and convener of Justice for Leonard Co! campaign.
According to Tapang, claims of crossfire have left a “host of questions” to Co’s families and friends.
Co and his two companions were part of a biodiversity research team fielded by the Energy Development Corporation to study the Mahawan-Kananga watershed.
The Philippine Army 19th Battalion claimed that the team was caught in a crossfire between members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and government forces last November 15.
“In this time, where we have a case like the one-year old Ampatuan massacre still unresolved, we need to be able to get the real facts and soon. We also plan to look at the situation of the survivors and the victims’ families,” said Tapang .
Meanwhile, Frances Quimpo, executive director of the Center for Environment Concerns, criticized the government for its alleged failure to immediately look into the cause of the incident.
“More than a week has passed since Leonard’s killing, but until now, there is no conclusive report from the government, either from the municipal police or the National Bureau of Investigation,” said Quimpo.
According to news reports, the survivors belied the report of the military on its firefight with NPA rebels.
According to survivors, they did not encounter any rebels in the area and the gunfire that they heard came from only one direction. D’Jay Lazaro
November 23, 2010
A CITIZEN-BASED fact-finding mission has been organized in Kananga, Leyte to investigate the killings of botanist Leonard Co and his companions.
The mission will “establish the facts about the incident,” said Dr. Giovanni Tapang, chairperson of the Samahan ng Nagtataguyod ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan or AGHAM and convener of Justice for Leonard Co! campaign.
According to Tapang, claims of crossfire have left a “host of questions” to Co’s families and friends.
Co and his two companions were part of a biodiversity research team fielded by the Energy Development Corporation to study the Mahawan-Kananga watershed.
The Philippine Army 19th Battalion claimed that the team was caught in a crossfire between members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and government forces last November 15.
“In this time, where we have a case like the one-year old Ampatuan massacre still unresolved, we need to be able to get the real facts and soon. We also plan to look at the situation of the survivors and the victims’ families,” said Tapang .
Meanwhile, Frances Quimpo, executive director of the Center for Environment Concerns, criticized the government for its alleged failure to immediately look into the cause of the incident.
“More than a week has passed since Leonard’s killing, but until now, there is no conclusive report from the government, either from the municipal police or the National Bureau of Investigation,” said Quimpo.
According to news reports, the survivors belied the report of the military on its firefight with NPA rebels.
According to survivors, they did not encounter any rebels in the area and the gunfire that they heard came from only one direction. D’Jay Lazaro
Monday, November 22, 2010
Leonard, the ‘plant philanderer,’ lies among his treasures
Monday, 22 November 2010 20:44
Jeanmaire E. Molina, PhD
Business Mirror
I FIRST met Sir Leonard almost 10 years ago through Chico, who was my plant taxonomy instructor. Sir Leonard, who was then botanist for Conservation International-Philippines, was recruiting volunteers to help with field work out in the remote jungles of Palanan, Isabela, which entailed a 10-hour bus ride from Manila to Cauayan, and then a 30-minute Cessna ride over the Northern Sierra Madres.
My mom was worried about the trip so we decided to ask him what it was really like being out there, especially the malaria situation. Sir Leonard replied matter-of-factly, “Ah, wag po kyo mag-alala. Lahat naman po ng field biologists may malaria [Don’t worry, all field biologists have malaria].” Hearing this, we immediately drove to Mercury Drug so that I can start my dose of Aralen, a malaria prophylactic.
This was Sir Leonard. So dedicated was he, that malaria did not deter him. He took pride in having two strains of it in his system. Nothing stopped him—a throng of wasps, a turbulent ride on the six-seater Cessna a.k.a. the flying coffin, Signal No. 5 typhoons, even a shotgun to his face by an NPA rebel. Just to give you a sense of how intense this person was: One time he slipped while wading in the Palanan stream, hit his back so bad, but instead of squealing in pain, he shouted, “Yung Eugenia ko. May flowers ’yon!”, to alert us to save his collected plant from drifting away with the stream currents. When he had it back in his hand, only then he did he shout, “aray!”
As a young boy, Sir Leonard already knew what he wanted to do with his life. A natural historian at heart, he was collecting anything he could, from stones, bugs to plants. At 12 he had transformed part of his room into a makeshift herbarium to house one of his first plant collections, Oryza sativa, better known to nonbotanists as rice.
He was always fascinated by the diversity of life, and he knew plants were the scaffold that held it all together. He studied botany in college because he knew this was the only way he could get out into the woods, even joining the UP mountaineering club just so he could collect and add to his growing collection of dried plants. The mentorship of Benito Tan and Jose Vera Santos, two botany greats, only whetted his appetite even more—15,000 Philippine plant species and his dream was to know and catalogue every single one of it, and to make the world know of the Philippines’ incredible biodiversity before it was too late.
Sir Leonard’s energy and incredible, beyond-words type of love for botany and Philippine conservation were so strong that it just radiated out to anyone he met; and I can definitely speak for this, as well as my good friends, Sandra Yap, Hazel Consunji, Lorie Tongco, Ulysses Ferreras, and the dozens of other students he had touched one way or another. He was like a second father to us. He was “Tatay Chex” for Chekwa, our fond nickname for someone we adored. He was my dad in science, but I loved him like my own. He molded me into the person that I am now. He taught me everything I know about Philippine plants, which he knew like the palm of his hand. He was relentless in encouraging his students to pursue botany and conservation science, so that we can all fight for the cause of preserving every bit of Philippine biodiversity.
One thing that I will surely miss about him was his intimate knowledge of any Philippine plant species. There is no leaf or twig that you can show him that he won’t be able to give you the Latin name of, the shape of the scales or the hair type of its domatia, down to the pages of the Philippine Journal of Science where it was first published. If you ask him, “Sir, pano nyo po nalaman [How did you know that]?” He’d jokingly say, “Ah, binulong saken ni Merrill [Merrill whispered it to me].” Merrill was literally Sir’s American idol. He was an American botanist who devoted much of his life to the study of Philippine plants in the early 1900s.
His portrait hangs in the herbarium, where Sir Leonard would sleep most of the time. This was Sir’s second home, after the forests. No offense Tita Glenda (Leonard’s wife), but Sir was a plant philanderer! One time I asked him, “Sir, alin po mas mahal nyo, si Tita Glends o ang halaman [Sir, who do you love more, Tita Glenda or your plants]”. He scratched his head, paused for a while, and said, “Ang hirap naman ng tanong mo [That’s a tough question].” So much was his love for his science that he also named his only daughter after Linneaus, the great Swedish botanist of the 1700s!
There is no other Filipino botanist who comes close to Sir Leonard. He was the best of the best. Bar-none. Passionate is even an understatement to describe him. He was a self-made man; everything he knew he pretty much learned by himself, better than any PhD I’ve ever known. His passing is not just a big loss to his loved ones, but more so, a catastrophic loss to this country. Whoever is culpable for this has done our nation a great disservice because I’ve never known anyone who knew our plants the way he did, who had so selflessly given up anything for the cause of Philippine conservation, without any regard at all for personal gain or self-prestige. He is indeed a national treasure, an unsung hero.
It is ironic that he died while collecting forest seeds for reforestation projects. Maybe somehow he knew that some of the seeds he had planted and nurtured 10 years ago are now ready to carry on his mission.
I am one of those seeds and so are Sandra, Uly, Hazel, Lorie. Maybe it is time for us to plant our own seeds and train new students and enthuse others the way Sir Leonard did. May his death, instead of crippling the conservation movement, mobilize each one of us to continue fighting for our forests. This is the only way we can vindicate his death. This is the only way he would want to be remembered. We owe it to him, to ourselves and to this country. And as we leave here, may we all espouse the mantra he lived by, from the great Harvard sociobiologist, E.O. Wilson…
“Every scrap of biological diversity is priceless, to be learned and cherished and never to be surrendered without a struggle.”
Goodbye, Sir Leonard. I will really miss you. Thank you so, so much for giving me the invaluable opportunity to learn from you. We love you. Nothing will ever be the same again.
Molina, now attached to New York University, was one of Leonardo Co’s research assistants when he first set up the biodiversity project in Palanan, Isabela, in 2001. She and several other UP biology grads who saw his work up close in the forests have been coming back each year during breaks in postgraduate work abroad, to follow up on their projects. This was one of the eulogies for the late, preeminent botanist, whose death by what the military called a “crossfire” in Leyte last week has sparked outrage. His ashes were scattered in Palanan.
Jeanmaire E. Molina, PhD
Business Mirror
I FIRST met Sir Leonard almost 10 years ago through Chico, who was my plant taxonomy instructor. Sir Leonard, who was then botanist for Conservation International-Philippines, was recruiting volunteers to help with field work out in the remote jungles of Palanan, Isabela, which entailed a 10-hour bus ride from Manila to Cauayan, and then a 30-minute Cessna ride over the Northern Sierra Madres.
My mom was worried about the trip so we decided to ask him what it was really like being out there, especially the malaria situation. Sir Leonard replied matter-of-factly, “Ah, wag po kyo mag-alala. Lahat naman po ng field biologists may malaria [Don’t worry, all field biologists have malaria].” Hearing this, we immediately drove to Mercury Drug so that I can start my dose of Aralen, a malaria prophylactic.
This was Sir Leonard. So dedicated was he, that malaria did not deter him. He took pride in having two strains of it in his system. Nothing stopped him—a throng of wasps, a turbulent ride on the six-seater Cessna a.k.a. the flying coffin, Signal No. 5 typhoons, even a shotgun to his face by an NPA rebel. Just to give you a sense of how intense this person was: One time he slipped while wading in the Palanan stream, hit his back so bad, but instead of squealing in pain, he shouted, “Yung Eugenia ko. May flowers ’yon!”, to alert us to save his collected plant from drifting away with the stream currents. When he had it back in his hand, only then he did he shout, “aray!”
As a young boy, Sir Leonard already knew what he wanted to do with his life. A natural historian at heart, he was collecting anything he could, from stones, bugs to plants. At 12 he had transformed part of his room into a makeshift herbarium to house one of his first plant collections, Oryza sativa, better known to nonbotanists as rice.
He was always fascinated by the diversity of life, and he knew plants were the scaffold that held it all together. He studied botany in college because he knew this was the only way he could get out into the woods, even joining the UP mountaineering club just so he could collect and add to his growing collection of dried plants. The mentorship of Benito Tan and Jose Vera Santos, two botany greats, only whetted his appetite even more—15,000 Philippine plant species and his dream was to know and catalogue every single one of it, and to make the world know of the Philippines’ incredible biodiversity before it was too late.
Sir Leonard’s energy and incredible, beyond-words type of love for botany and Philippine conservation were so strong that it just radiated out to anyone he met; and I can definitely speak for this, as well as my good friends, Sandra Yap, Hazel Consunji, Lorie Tongco, Ulysses Ferreras, and the dozens of other students he had touched one way or another. He was like a second father to us. He was “Tatay Chex” for Chekwa, our fond nickname for someone we adored. He was my dad in science, but I loved him like my own. He molded me into the person that I am now. He taught me everything I know about Philippine plants, which he knew like the palm of his hand. He was relentless in encouraging his students to pursue botany and conservation science, so that we can all fight for the cause of preserving every bit of Philippine biodiversity.
One thing that I will surely miss about him was his intimate knowledge of any Philippine plant species. There is no leaf or twig that you can show him that he won’t be able to give you the Latin name of, the shape of the scales or the hair type of its domatia, down to the pages of the Philippine Journal of Science where it was first published. If you ask him, “Sir, pano nyo po nalaman [How did you know that]?” He’d jokingly say, “Ah, binulong saken ni Merrill [Merrill whispered it to me].” Merrill was literally Sir’s American idol. He was an American botanist who devoted much of his life to the study of Philippine plants in the early 1900s.
His portrait hangs in the herbarium, where Sir Leonard would sleep most of the time. This was Sir’s second home, after the forests. No offense Tita Glenda (Leonard’s wife), but Sir was a plant philanderer! One time I asked him, “Sir, alin po mas mahal nyo, si Tita Glends o ang halaman [Sir, who do you love more, Tita Glenda or your plants]”. He scratched his head, paused for a while, and said, “Ang hirap naman ng tanong mo [That’s a tough question].” So much was his love for his science that he also named his only daughter after Linneaus, the great Swedish botanist of the 1700s!
There is no other Filipino botanist who comes close to Sir Leonard. He was the best of the best. Bar-none. Passionate is even an understatement to describe him. He was a self-made man; everything he knew he pretty much learned by himself, better than any PhD I’ve ever known. His passing is not just a big loss to his loved ones, but more so, a catastrophic loss to this country. Whoever is culpable for this has done our nation a great disservice because I’ve never known anyone who knew our plants the way he did, who had so selflessly given up anything for the cause of Philippine conservation, without any regard at all for personal gain or self-prestige. He is indeed a national treasure, an unsung hero.
It is ironic that he died while collecting forest seeds for reforestation projects. Maybe somehow he knew that some of the seeds he had planted and nurtured 10 years ago are now ready to carry on his mission.
I am one of those seeds and so are Sandra, Uly, Hazel, Lorie. Maybe it is time for us to plant our own seeds and train new students and enthuse others the way Sir Leonard did. May his death, instead of crippling the conservation movement, mobilize each one of us to continue fighting for our forests. This is the only way we can vindicate his death. This is the only way he would want to be remembered. We owe it to him, to ourselves and to this country. And as we leave here, may we all espouse the mantra he lived by, from the great Harvard sociobiologist, E.O. Wilson…
“Every scrap of biological diversity is priceless, to be learned and cherished and never to be surrendered without a struggle.”
Goodbye, Sir Leonard. I will really miss you. Thank you so, so much for giving me the invaluable opportunity to learn from you. We love you. Nothing will ever be the same again.
Molina, now attached to New York University, was one of Leonardo Co’s research assistants when he first set up the biodiversity project in Palanan, Isabela, in 2001. She and several other UP biology grads who saw his work up close in the forests have been coming back each year during breaks in postgraduate work abroad, to follow up on their projects. This was one of the eulogies for the late, preeminent botanist, whose death by what the military called a “crossfire” in Leyte last week has sparked outrage. His ashes were scattered in Palanan.
PNP backs Army on botanist’s death
Anthony Vargas
Dateline.ph
Posted on 22 Nov 2010 at 6:17pm
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police (PNP) is backing the military’s claim that leading Filipino botanist Leonardo Co and two companions died after they were caught in the crossfire as soldiers clashed with communist rebels in Leyte last week.
PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said forensic investigators from the Eastern Visayas regional police office have reconstructed the crime scene and their “initial investigation showed that there (was the) presence of NPA (New People’s Army) rebels and according to the witnesses there was an exchange of gunfire.”
He added that investigators had recovered from the scene of the incident shells of still unknown caliber that did not come from soldiers’ weapons.
“There are witnesses who said that there was exchange of fire and aside from the fact that from the initial reconstructions, they have recovered some shells that (are) not in the inventory of the AFP,” Cruz said.
“Our intention here is to have a comprehensive and transparent investigation and so that we can pinpoint from where or who really shot the UP botanist,” he said. “What they (investigators) are now doing is conducting paraffin test to all of the participating elements from the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and of course all of their firearms will be subjected to ballistic exams so we can find out . . . where the bullets came from.”
The PNP spokesman said troops of the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion (IB) who were sent to check on reported rebel presence in the area of the incident were unaware the five-man research team Co was leading was in the area.
“That is what (is) coming out from our initial investigation, that they (did not) know that somebody (was) conducting research in that place,” Cruz said.
But he stressed that investigators intend to take the accounts of all possible witnesses and analyze all the evidence collected.
“Those that will be found liable (for the death of Co), we will charge them with criminal cases aside from their liability under the Articles of War, but on our part we will be the one that will file the criminal complaint,” Cruz said.
The Army maintains Co, forest guard Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julius Borromeo died when they were caught in the clash in the forests of Kananga town last November 15.
Dateline.ph
Posted on 22 Nov 2010 at 6:17pm
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police (PNP) is backing the military’s claim that leading Filipino botanist Leonardo Co and two companions died after they were caught in the crossfire as soldiers clashed with communist rebels in Leyte last week.
PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said forensic investigators from the Eastern Visayas regional police office have reconstructed the crime scene and their “initial investigation showed that there (was the) presence of NPA (New People’s Army) rebels and according to the witnesses there was an exchange of gunfire.”
He added that investigators had recovered from the scene of the incident shells of still unknown caliber that did not come from soldiers’ weapons.
“There are witnesses who said that there was exchange of fire and aside from the fact that from the initial reconstructions, they have recovered some shells that (are) not in the inventory of the AFP,” Cruz said.
“Our intention here is to have a comprehensive and transparent investigation and so that we can pinpoint from where or who really shot the UP botanist,” he said. “What they (investigators) are now doing is conducting paraffin test to all of the participating elements from the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and of course all of their firearms will be subjected to ballistic exams so we can find out . . . where the bullets came from.”
The PNP spokesman said troops of the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion (IB) who were sent to check on reported rebel presence in the area of the incident were unaware the five-man research team Co was leading was in the area.
“That is what (is) coming out from our initial investigation, that they (did not) know that somebody (was) conducting research in that place,” Cruz said.
But he stressed that investigators intend to take the accounts of all possible witnesses and analyze all the evidence collected.
“Those that will be found liable (for the death of Co), we will charge them with criminal cases aside from their liability under the Articles of War, but on our part we will be the one that will file the criminal complaint,” Cruz said.
The Army maintains Co, forest guard Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julius Borromeo died when they were caught in the clash in the forests of Kananga town last November 15.
The Loss of a National Treasure
Privilege Speech
Hon. Angelo B. Palmones
Representative, AGHAM Party-List
22 November 2010
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues in the House of Representatives, I stand before you today to express our feeling of sadness for the loss of a national treasure, by the name of Dr. Leonardo L. Co.
Dr. Co is a top plant taxonomist and ethno botanist from the University of the Philippines- Institute of Biology, where he served as museum researcher. He was President of the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, a non-stock, non-profit organization which promotes the conservation of native Philippine plants, and popularizes its history through educational fora and other information and communication activities.
Leonardo is not known to many, but his quiet and simple way of doing things has touched the lives of the underprivileged members of society. Starting in 1981, he worked with the Community Health, Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR). He worked not only with his group of researchers but also with the community people in listing 122 medicinal plants, which include plants description, plant scientific and common names, parts used for medicine, direction for use, and precautionary notes.
In 1984, Leonardo published his book “Common Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera Administrative Region: A Trainor’s Manual to Community-Based Health Program” intended primarily to help upland communities in the treatment of common illnesses because medicines are not readily available in the locality. Another book he published “The Forest Trees of Palanan, Philippines:
A Study in Population Ecology” concerns protection and conservation of natural resources and the environment. From reports and personal accounts, Leonardo was said to be the only one from his group who has the ability to identify and describe plants and trees and the actual location where these can be found in the country. Just recently, Leonardo was Consultant of Energy Development Corp. (EDC) in a reforestation project in Leyte.
On November 15, 2010 Leonardo and four other members of the team were in Barangay Lim-ao, Kananga, Leyte to conduct a study on tree biodiversity in the area, and to collect specimen seedlings of endangered trees for replanting.
It is sad that on that same day Leonardo and two members of his team were killed.
Reports said that Leonardo sustained gunshot wound in his back in a crossfire
during the encounter between the military and the communist rebels. However, a witness, one of the survivors of his team, was saying that there was no exchange of gun shoots, and the military could not tell whose gun killed Leonardo. Furthermore, EDC reported that the presence of the study team in the area was cleared with the military, and that there is an existing security protocol between the military and the company.
Meantime, the bereaved family would like to know what really happened to Leonardo. They cry for justice for the loss of their loved one.
We at AGHAM Party-List feel that the country lost a treasure – the science community lost a good and dedicated researcher and scientist; Mother Earth lost a committed environmental activist and protector, whose knowledge and love of the plants and the trees will no longer continue to contribute to the conservation and protection of the forest; and most of all, the common “tao” lost their scientist, who before his death had been dedicatedly working to promote their health and their awareness of the environment.
And before the fatal incident, a five-petal flower, Rafflesia leonardi, reportedly found by Leonardo’s group in the rainforest of Cagayan Province was named after him. Rafflesia leonardi is said to be the only one of its kind in the world; and so is Dr. Leonardo L. Co.
AGHAM filed House Resolution No. 652 seeking for the immediate investigation and resolution of the case on the killing of one of the country’s top plant taxonomists, one of the country’s treasures, named Dr. Leonardo L. Co.
Thank you.
Hon. Angelo B. Palmones
Representative, AGHAM Party-List
22 November 2010
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues in the House of Representatives, I stand before you today to express our feeling of sadness for the loss of a national treasure, by the name of Dr. Leonardo L. Co.
Dr. Co is a top plant taxonomist and ethno botanist from the University of the Philippines- Institute of Biology, where he served as museum researcher. He was President of the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, a non-stock, non-profit organization which promotes the conservation of native Philippine plants, and popularizes its history through educational fora and other information and communication activities.
Leonardo is not known to many, but his quiet and simple way of doing things has touched the lives of the underprivileged members of society. Starting in 1981, he worked with the Community Health, Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR). He worked not only with his group of researchers but also with the community people in listing 122 medicinal plants, which include plants description, plant scientific and common names, parts used for medicine, direction for use, and precautionary notes.
In 1984, Leonardo published his book “Common Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera Administrative Region: A Trainor’s Manual to Community-Based Health Program” intended primarily to help upland communities in the treatment of common illnesses because medicines are not readily available in the locality. Another book he published “The Forest Trees of Palanan, Philippines:
A Study in Population Ecology” concerns protection and conservation of natural resources and the environment. From reports and personal accounts, Leonardo was said to be the only one from his group who has the ability to identify and describe plants and trees and the actual location where these can be found in the country. Just recently, Leonardo was Consultant of Energy Development Corp. (EDC) in a reforestation project in Leyte.
On November 15, 2010 Leonardo and four other members of the team were in Barangay Lim-ao, Kananga, Leyte to conduct a study on tree biodiversity in the area, and to collect specimen seedlings of endangered trees for replanting.
It is sad that on that same day Leonardo and two members of his team were killed.
Reports said that Leonardo sustained gunshot wound in his back in a crossfire
during the encounter between the military and the communist rebels. However, a witness, one of the survivors of his team, was saying that there was no exchange of gun shoots, and the military could not tell whose gun killed Leonardo. Furthermore, EDC reported that the presence of the study team in the area was cleared with the military, and that there is an existing security protocol between the military and the company.
Meantime, the bereaved family would like to know what really happened to Leonardo. They cry for justice for the loss of their loved one.
We at AGHAM Party-List feel that the country lost a treasure – the science community lost a good and dedicated researcher and scientist; Mother Earth lost a committed environmental activist and protector, whose knowledge and love of the plants and the trees will no longer continue to contribute to the conservation and protection of the forest; and most of all, the common “tao” lost their scientist, who before his death had been dedicatedly working to promote their health and their awareness of the environment.
And before the fatal incident, a five-petal flower, Rafflesia leonardi, reportedly found by Leonardo’s group in the rainforest of Cagayan Province was named after him. Rafflesia leonardi is said to be the only one of its kind in the world; and so is Dr. Leonardo L. Co.
AGHAM filed House Resolution No. 652 seeking for the immediate investigation and resolution of the case on the killing of one of the country’s top plant taxonomists, one of the country’s treasures, named Dr. Leonardo L. Co.
Thank you.
No crossfire
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:11:00 11/22/2010
Some old habits die hard; in the case of the country’s security forces, the excuses they learned under Marcos and military rule (in those dark days, the police was “integrated” into the Armed Forces) were reinforced during the ascendancy of the military in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s latter years in office, and today continue to be in heavy use. When suspects or alleged rebels die in mysterious circumstances, and they happen to be armed, chances are the deaths will be classified as coming from a “shootout” or an “encounter.” When the victims are civilians, and definitely unarmed, their deaths will be reported as the unfortunate result of a “crossfire.”
It was almost inevitable, then, that the deaths of one of the country’s leading botanists, Leonardo Co, and two of his companions, forest guard Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julio Borromeo, around noon a week ago today, were attributed by the AFP to crossfire from an alleged encounter in the forests of Kananga, Leyte between troops of the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion and the communist New People’s Army.
Unfortunately for the military’s version of the story, two more of Co’s companions survived, and their eyewitness accounts are not only riveting; they are different from the AFP’s.
Policarpio Balute, 33, recalled the crucial moment in an interview with the Inquirer’s Joey Gabieta. “During that time, we kept on cracking jokes to Doc’s amusement [referring to Professor Co]. It was raining. Then suddenly, we heard successive bursts of gunfire. The doctor asked us all to lie down on the ground so we would not be hit.”
He added: “I saw the doctor, raising ... both hands, crying, pleading for them to stop firing at us. But his pleadings were ignored by them as they kept on firing towards our direction.”
In an earlier interview, Balute said there was no answering fire. He could not see who was shooting at them from 30 or 40 meters away but, as an early Inquirer report put it, “did not hear any responding volley of shots from any direction that could indicate that the soldiers and rebels were engaged in battle.”
In his second interview, Balute said he did not know if NPA rebels were in the area. He did say that “At that time, we were the only people there.”
To insinuations that Co and company should not have been in the area in the first place, both the company that hired them and Co’s grief-stricken colleagues in academe issued pointed rejoinders.
The Energy Development Corp., part of the Lopez group of companies, released a statement confirming that it had in fact notified the military, through the 8th Infantry Division, that Co would be working in the area. “What we know is that EDC informed the Philippine Army Command responsible for security in the area of Professor Co’s planned route and activities, and had received positive confirmation for them to proceed before they entered the area.” In another statement, EDC identified Co as a biodiversity consultant for the EDC, helping the company implement its “Binhi” reforestation program; Cortez as a member of the Tongonan Farmer’s Association; and Borromeo as belonging to EDC’s Community Partnerships Department.
At a University of the Philippines tribute to Co, colleague Perry Ong, a wildlife biologist, said experts like Co had “lasted this long” doing risky research and work because they precisely did not take any chances. Co would not have been in the area if the military had not been notified, he said. “We go to far-flung places. We wouldn’t have lasted this long if we were reckless or adventurous and just went to a place [without clearance from authorities]. The mere fact that I’m alive and that he was alive up until Monday ... We have been in the forests for 20, 30 years, and we were able to come back alive. Our motto was always ‘safety first.’”
If there was in fact no rebel force that engaged soldiers of the 19th Infantry Battalion on Nov. 15, then we can be certain that that Army unit’s motto was the old military classic: “Shoot first, ask questions later.”
We join our voice to the growing chorus of outrage, and call on the police in the area, the Armed Forces top brass, the Commission on Human Rights, and even the Senate to conduct in parallel a speedy and impartial investigation. The military has said it will cooperate, and has expressed its regrets at the unfortunate loss of life. That’s a start; let no one mistake it for the end.
First Posted 04:11:00 11/22/2010
Some old habits die hard; in the case of the country’s security forces, the excuses they learned under Marcos and military rule (in those dark days, the police was “integrated” into the Armed Forces) were reinforced during the ascendancy of the military in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s latter years in office, and today continue to be in heavy use. When suspects or alleged rebels die in mysterious circumstances, and they happen to be armed, chances are the deaths will be classified as coming from a “shootout” or an “encounter.” When the victims are civilians, and definitely unarmed, their deaths will be reported as the unfortunate result of a “crossfire.”
It was almost inevitable, then, that the deaths of one of the country’s leading botanists, Leonardo Co, and two of his companions, forest guard Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julio Borromeo, around noon a week ago today, were attributed by the AFP to crossfire from an alleged encounter in the forests of Kananga, Leyte between troops of the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion and the communist New People’s Army.
Unfortunately for the military’s version of the story, two more of Co’s companions survived, and their eyewitness accounts are not only riveting; they are different from the AFP’s.
Policarpio Balute, 33, recalled the crucial moment in an interview with the Inquirer’s Joey Gabieta. “During that time, we kept on cracking jokes to Doc’s amusement [referring to Professor Co]. It was raining. Then suddenly, we heard successive bursts of gunfire. The doctor asked us all to lie down on the ground so we would not be hit.”
He added: “I saw the doctor, raising ... both hands, crying, pleading for them to stop firing at us. But his pleadings were ignored by them as they kept on firing towards our direction.”
In an earlier interview, Balute said there was no answering fire. He could not see who was shooting at them from 30 or 40 meters away but, as an early Inquirer report put it, “did not hear any responding volley of shots from any direction that could indicate that the soldiers and rebels were engaged in battle.”
In his second interview, Balute said he did not know if NPA rebels were in the area. He did say that “At that time, we were the only people there.”
To insinuations that Co and company should not have been in the area in the first place, both the company that hired them and Co’s grief-stricken colleagues in academe issued pointed rejoinders.
The Energy Development Corp., part of the Lopez group of companies, released a statement confirming that it had in fact notified the military, through the 8th Infantry Division, that Co would be working in the area. “What we know is that EDC informed the Philippine Army Command responsible for security in the area of Professor Co’s planned route and activities, and had received positive confirmation for them to proceed before they entered the area.” In another statement, EDC identified Co as a biodiversity consultant for the EDC, helping the company implement its “Binhi” reforestation program; Cortez as a member of the Tongonan Farmer’s Association; and Borromeo as belonging to EDC’s Community Partnerships Department.
At a University of the Philippines tribute to Co, colleague Perry Ong, a wildlife biologist, said experts like Co had “lasted this long” doing risky research and work because they precisely did not take any chances. Co would not have been in the area if the military had not been notified, he said. “We go to far-flung places. We wouldn’t have lasted this long if we were reckless or adventurous and just went to a place [without clearance from authorities]. The mere fact that I’m alive and that he was alive up until Monday ... We have been in the forests for 20, 30 years, and we were able to come back alive. Our motto was always ‘safety first.’”
If there was in fact no rebel force that engaged soldiers of the 19th Infantry Battalion on Nov. 15, then we can be certain that that Army unit’s motto was the old military classic: “Shoot first, ask questions later.”
We join our voice to the growing chorus of outrage, and call on the police in the area, the Armed Forces top brass, the Commission on Human Rights, and even the Senate to conduct in parallel a speedy and impartial investigation. The military has said it will cooperate, and has expressed its regrets at the unfortunate loss of life. That’s a start; let no one mistake it for the end.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
In praise of good men
At Large
By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:15:00 11/21/2010
MANILA, Philippines—I met Prof. Leonard Co only once, in a press conference called by a group of San Beda alumni who were embarking on a tree-planting project along the North Luzon Expressway. But they weren’t going to plant just any trees. At the bidding of some conservationists and biodiversity experts, notably Professor Co, they were going to plant only indigenous species, some of which were already dying out because of the “competition” posed by foreign or non-native trees.
It turns out that in the course of the mania for reforestation, some groups had been planting trees that were not only ill-suited for local conditions, but in the case of certain “fast-growing” species, were rapidly crowding out indigenous trees and depleting the ground water supply.
The professor was present at the event to lend his expertise on what trees were suitable for planting along a busy highway with minimal tending.
But what I most remember of Professor Co from our brief exchange was not his expertise but his passion, expressed in curt, blunt expressions. When I told him I was interested in planting “Palawan Cherry” trees in my garden, he snorted that the tree “was neither from Palawan nor is it a real cherry tree.” He exhibited a wide breadth of knowledge about indigenous plants, and readily shared information on the state of the biodiversity of our flora and fauna.
I’m embarrassed to say that it was only upon his death—in a supposed “shootout” between the military and NPA rebels in Leyte—that I found out Co was not just any botanist but the country’s most respected and renowned botanist, a champion of biodiversity, devoting his life and inspiring hundreds of his students, even those who were already based abroad, to identify and document the country’s rich trove of plant life. Indeed at the time of his death, Co and his companions were searching for a native tree species suitable for a reforestation project, recalling echoes of that press conference where I encountered him.
* * *
IN A most moving tribute published in the Business Mirror and obviously written by a disciple of Co, the professor’s dedication to preserving the country’s disappearing legacy of biodiversity was illustrated thus:
“Nearly a decade ago, alarmed by field reports that one of the country’s last frontiers in biodiversity, a treasure-trove of plant life with immense implications for the country’s environmental future and economic life, was under threat as loggers were closing in on it atop the mountains of Palanan in Isabela province, Professor Co tapped into his wide network in academe, funding agencies (at one time a World Bank affiliate gave it a grant) and his army of students and followers, to focus, not just on saving that precious circle of life, but to inventory and tag plant species for future generations.
Through the years, his UP students, so inspired by his work, would keep coming back to the country each year to revisit the project and ensure it is sustained. Since many of them were bright students, several had gotten MA and PhD scholarships in top universities abroad; and yet, in the summer break, they would somehow find even modest grants, from institutions like the Smithsonian, just to be able to come back and work on the Palanan project just for a few weeks.
“It is said that a man’s true measure of greatness is not just in what he himself has done, but in how well he has inspired, or caused others, to rise above their own ordinary selves and do acts of greatness. In this light one sees the great life and work of Leonardo Co.” Reports have it that some of Co’s ashes will be spread over his “beloved Palanan,” and my wish is that the Pacific winds will blow them all over the islands whose riches Co had sought to preserve and protect.
* * *
SEEMS this is a column meant for praising good men. Allow me to put in a good word for Bong Austero, a senior vice president for human resources with the Philippine National Bank, who is in the running for president of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP).
I’ve known Bong for decades, starting from the time we both served on the board of trustees of the Remedios AIDS Foundation and he still sported shoulder-length hair tied neatly in a pony-tail. I didn’t know he was into corporate work then, but I remember being duly impressed by his professionalism and empathy for the plight of people living with HIV/AIDS, especially those too poor to afford regular medications or care.
He is running for PMAP president, says Bong, “because I want to champion the cause of Filipino human capital. I really think it is about time that professional organizations such as PMAP boldly pursue advocacies to develop and manage Filipino human capital. People—Filipino talent—is the only remaining source of competitive advantage that we have as a nation as most of our other natural resources are gone (or going fast). But we don’t have a clear plan on how we can effectively harness Filipino human capital.”
Bong writes of what needs to be done to “address the mismatch,” including developing tools to forecast labor supply and demand, formulating concrete strategies to deal with the OFW phenomenon and the “brain drain,” and fixing the educational system to better respond to current and future trends.
“I am running for PMAP president,” he reiterates, “because I really would like to channel the capabilities and the power of PMAP in pursuit of a better future for Filipino human capital.”
Over the years, Bong has shed the long hair (or maybe age shed it for him?) and adopted a more “corporate” image, but it’s obvious the fires that burned in his soul as a student activist and human rights champion still burn as bright as before.
By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:15:00 11/21/2010
MANILA, Philippines—I met Prof. Leonard Co only once, in a press conference called by a group of San Beda alumni who were embarking on a tree-planting project along the North Luzon Expressway. But they weren’t going to plant just any trees. At the bidding of some conservationists and biodiversity experts, notably Professor Co, they were going to plant only indigenous species, some of which were already dying out because of the “competition” posed by foreign or non-native trees.
It turns out that in the course of the mania for reforestation, some groups had been planting trees that were not only ill-suited for local conditions, but in the case of certain “fast-growing” species, were rapidly crowding out indigenous trees and depleting the ground water supply.
The professor was present at the event to lend his expertise on what trees were suitable for planting along a busy highway with minimal tending.
But what I most remember of Professor Co from our brief exchange was not his expertise but his passion, expressed in curt, blunt expressions. When I told him I was interested in planting “Palawan Cherry” trees in my garden, he snorted that the tree “was neither from Palawan nor is it a real cherry tree.” He exhibited a wide breadth of knowledge about indigenous plants, and readily shared information on the state of the biodiversity of our flora and fauna.
I’m embarrassed to say that it was only upon his death—in a supposed “shootout” between the military and NPA rebels in Leyte—that I found out Co was not just any botanist but the country’s most respected and renowned botanist, a champion of biodiversity, devoting his life and inspiring hundreds of his students, even those who were already based abroad, to identify and document the country’s rich trove of plant life. Indeed at the time of his death, Co and his companions were searching for a native tree species suitable for a reforestation project, recalling echoes of that press conference where I encountered him.
* * *
IN A most moving tribute published in the Business Mirror and obviously written by a disciple of Co, the professor’s dedication to preserving the country’s disappearing legacy of biodiversity was illustrated thus:
“Nearly a decade ago, alarmed by field reports that one of the country’s last frontiers in biodiversity, a treasure-trove of plant life with immense implications for the country’s environmental future and economic life, was under threat as loggers were closing in on it atop the mountains of Palanan in Isabela province, Professor Co tapped into his wide network in academe, funding agencies (at one time a World Bank affiliate gave it a grant) and his army of students and followers, to focus, not just on saving that precious circle of life, but to inventory and tag plant species for future generations.
Through the years, his UP students, so inspired by his work, would keep coming back to the country each year to revisit the project and ensure it is sustained. Since many of them were bright students, several had gotten MA and PhD scholarships in top universities abroad; and yet, in the summer break, they would somehow find even modest grants, from institutions like the Smithsonian, just to be able to come back and work on the Palanan project just for a few weeks.
“It is said that a man’s true measure of greatness is not just in what he himself has done, but in how well he has inspired, or caused others, to rise above their own ordinary selves and do acts of greatness. In this light one sees the great life and work of Leonardo Co.” Reports have it that some of Co’s ashes will be spread over his “beloved Palanan,” and my wish is that the Pacific winds will blow them all over the islands whose riches Co had sought to preserve and protect.
* * *
SEEMS this is a column meant for praising good men. Allow me to put in a good word for Bong Austero, a senior vice president for human resources with the Philippine National Bank, who is in the running for president of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP).
I’ve known Bong for decades, starting from the time we both served on the board of trustees of the Remedios AIDS Foundation and he still sported shoulder-length hair tied neatly in a pony-tail. I didn’t know he was into corporate work then, but I remember being duly impressed by his professionalism and empathy for the plight of people living with HIV/AIDS, especially those too poor to afford regular medications or care.
He is running for PMAP president, says Bong, “because I want to champion the cause of Filipino human capital. I really think it is about time that professional organizations such as PMAP boldly pursue advocacies to develop and manage Filipino human capital. People—Filipino talent—is the only remaining source of competitive advantage that we have as a nation as most of our other natural resources are gone (or going fast). But we don’t have a clear plan on how we can effectively harness Filipino human capital.”
Bong writes of what needs to be done to “address the mismatch,” including developing tools to forecast labor supply and demand, formulating concrete strategies to deal with the OFW phenomenon and the “brain drain,” and fixing the educational system to better respond to current and future trends.
“I am running for PMAP president,” he reiterates, “because I really would like to channel the capabilities and the power of PMAP in pursuit of a better future for Filipino human capital.”
Over the years, Bong has shed the long hair (or maybe age shed it for him?) and adopted a more “corporate” image, but it’s obvious the fires that burned in his soul as a student activist and human rights champion still burn as bright as before.
Slain farmers’ kin seek probe
By Joey A. Gabieta
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:38:00 11/21/2010
ORMOC CITY, Philippines—The families of two farmers who died along with botanist Leonardo Co on Nov. 15 in the forest of Kananga town are seeking an impartial investigation to find out who were really responsible for their deaths.
Whether they were caught in a crossfire or were mistaken for rebels by soldiers, the truth should be known in order that the killers could be brought to justice, said Teresita, widow of farmer Julio Borromeo, 50, one of the farmers.
“Whoever were responsible have to be punished. They killed my husband as if he were a pig. There was a big hole in his chest,” the 45-year-old widow said in an interview at her house in Tongonan, Ormoc on Thursday.
Arsenia, widow of Sofronio Cortez, 50, for her part disclosed that she could not even look at her husband lying in the coffin at the wake held at their home in Barangay Hilapnitan, Baybay, Leyte.
Senseless death
Arsenia said that she still could not accept that her husband died so senselessly.
“I am still confused about what happened to my husband and his group. I really don’t know. But we are seeking justice for his death. Up to now, I don’t have the strength to see his (dead) body lying in the coffin,” the widow said on Saturday.
Borromeo and Cortez will both be buried on Wednesday, Cortez at the Catholic cemetery in Baybay and Borromeo in Ormoc City.
Borromeo left six young children. Cortez had three children with ages ranging from 16 years to 23 years old.
Teresita said she could not believe that their six young children lost their father in such a manner. “On that day, he left our house at around 6 in the morning. And by 7 p.m., I was expecting him to return. But it never happened,” she said.
Borromeo, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association, hired by the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) to plant trees, was assigned by EDC along with Cortez, an EDC forest guard, and two others to assist Co in documenting the tree specimens in the forest in Kananga adjoining the EDC-run Tongonan geothermal power plants.
Bursts of gunfire
Co and his team were in a forested area of Barangay Limao and were exchanging jokes just minutes before they were fired upon, according to one of the two survivors, Policarpio Balute, 33.
“During that time, we kept on cracking jokes to doc’s (Co) amusement. It was raining. Then suddenly, we heard successive bursts of gunfire. The doctor asked us all to lie down on the ground so we would not be hit,” Balute told the Inquirer on Thursday.
“He (Co) kept on shouting that the firing should be stopped. He was shouting repeatedly, ‘Sir, please stop. Have mercy on us. We are not enemies.’”
“But they never stopped. The burst of gunfire was so deafening and in rapid succession, similar to firecrackers exploding moments before the New Year,” Balute added.
Balute, however, could not say whom Co was referring to as “sir.”
“I saw the doctor, raising his both hands, crying, pleading for them to stop firing at us. But his pleadings were ignored by them as they kept on firing towards our direction,” added Balute.
Spared by men in uniform
Balute said he was able to slither away from the range of fire and ran fast for over an hour until he reached the EDC office. He reported the incident to the company’s chief security officer, Jojo Pascual.
The other survivor, Niño Gibe, was inside the group’s service vehicle parked some 90 meters away from the scene. He was spared by some men in camouflage uniform, Balute claimed.
Balute also said he had no idea if there were New People’s Army (NPA) fighters in the area. “At that time, we were the only people there,” said Balute.
The 19th Infantry Battalion claimed that a firefight with rebels led to the death of Co, Borromeo and Cortez.
The bodies of Co, Cortez and Borromeo were retrieved hours later from the site and placed in a truck. They were first brought to the Kananga police station, then to the Kananga Community Hospital and finally at the V. Rama Funeral Homes in Ormoc City.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:38:00 11/21/2010
ORMOC CITY, Philippines—The families of two farmers who died along with botanist Leonardo Co on Nov. 15 in the forest of Kananga town are seeking an impartial investigation to find out who were really responsible for their deaths.
Whether they were caught in a crossfire or were mistaken for rebels by soldiers, the truth should be known in order that the killers could be brought to justice, said Teresita, widow of farmer Julio Borromeo, 50, one of the farmers.
“Whoever were responsible have to be punished. They killed my husband as if he were a pig. There was a big hole in his chest,” the 45-year-old widow said in an interview at her house in Tongonan, Ormoc on Thursday.
Arsenia, widow of Sofronio Cortez, 50, for her part disclosed that she could not even look at her husband lying in the coffin at the wake held at their home in Barangay Hilapnitan, Baybay, Leyte.
Senseless death
Arsenia said that she still could not accept that her husband died so senselessly.
“I am still confused about what happened to my husband and his group. I really don’t know. But we are seeking justice for his death. Up to now, I don’t have the strength to see his (dead) body lying in the coffin,” the widow said on Saturday.
Borromeo and Cortez will both be buried on Wednesday, Cortez at the Catholic cemetery in Baybay and Borromeo in Ormoc City.
Borromeo left six young children. Cortez had three children with ages ranging from 16 years to 23 years old.
Teresita said she could not believe that their six young children lost their father in such a manner. “On that day, he left our house at around 6 in the morning. And by 7 p.m., I was expecting him to return. But it never happened,” she said.
Borromeo, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association, hired by the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) to plant trees, was assigned by EDC along with Cortez, an EDC forest guard, and two others to assist Co in documenting the tree specimens in the forest in Kananga adjoining the EDC-run Tongonan geothermal power plants.
Bursts of gunfire
Co and his team were in a forested area of Barangay Limao and were exchanging jokes just minutes before they were fired upon, according to one of the two survivors, Policarpio Balute, 33.
“During that time, we kept on cracking jokes to doc’s (Co) amusement. It was raining. Then suddenly, we heard successive bursts of gunfire. The doctor asked us all to lie down on the ground so we would not be hit,” Balute told the Inquirer on Thursday.
“He (Co) kept on shouting that the firing should be stopped. He was shouting repeatedly, ‘Sir, please stop. Have mercy on us. We are not enemies.’”
“But they never stopped. The burst of gunfire was so deafening and in rapid succession, similar to firecrackers exploding moments before the New Year,” Balute added.
Balute, however, could not say whom Co was referring to as “sir.”
“I saw the doctor, raising his both hands, crying, pleading for them to stop firing at us. But his pleadings were ignored by them as they kept on firing towards our direction,” added Balute.
Spared by men in uniform
Balute said he was able to slither away from the range of fire and ran fast for over an hour until he reached the EDC office. He reported the incident to the company’s chief security officer, Jojo Pascual.
The other survivor, Niño Gibe, was inside the group’s service vehicle parked some 90 meters away from the scene. He was spared by some men in camouflage uniform, Balute claimed.
Balute also said he had no idea if there were New People’s Army (NPA) fighters in the area. “At that time, we were the only people there,” said Balute.
The 19th Infantry Battalion claimed that a firefight with rebels led to the death of Co, Borromeo and Cortez.
The bodies of Co, Cortez and Borromeo were retrieved hours later from the site and placed in a truck. They were first brought to the Kananga police station, then to the Kananga Community Hospital and finally at the V. Rama Funeral Homes in Ormoc City.
Botanist’s case not isolated, says health group
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:05:00 11/21/2010
BAGUIO CITY—The Community Health Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region (Chestcore) said the death of botanist Leonardo Co, who was killed in a supposed crossfire between government troops and communist rebels in a Leyte forest on Nov. 15 was not an isolated case.
Chestcore, in a statement, said many health professionals working in remote communities have been accused of aiding or being members of the New People’s Army or the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“Instead of being lauded as heroes for choosing to devote their lives to community service and for opting to give up opportunities for career advancement abroad or in private practice, many of them have been harassed, arrested on false pretenses and even killed,” it said.
Co was a staff member of Chestcore in the 1980s. His work in the Cordilleras involved helping communities systematize the knowledge of traditional healers about medicinal plants for their own primary health care.
“It is unfortunate that [Co’s] ... service to the people was suddenly cut short by a few minutes of gunfire. We strongly condemn the killing of [Co] and two of his [companions] in the hands of the [military]. We demand that justice be served and those responsible not be allowed to hide behind the guise that [Co] and his companions were ‘caught in [a] crossfire,’” the group said.
As a former staff member of the Baguio City-based Chestcore Co since 1981 had helped list 122 medicinal plants in the region with their scientific and common names.
Co updated his list and in 1989, in collaboration with the Chestcore, published the book, “Common Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera Region: A Trainor’s Manual for Community-Based Health Programs.” The book was primarily designed to help communities tap their traditional medicinal plants to treat some common diseases without relying too much on prescription drugs, which are not readily available.
Chestcore said, aside from Co, many health professionals have been abused and harassed because of “red tagging.”
It cited as examples the killing of Dr. Bobby de la Paz in Samar and Dr. Juan “Johnny” Escandor in Bicol, the attempted assassination of Dr. Chandu Claver in Kalinga and the continued detention of the 43 health workers arrested in Morong, Rizal, early this year.
Co, his former colleagues said, practiced “science ... for the people.”
“He patiently interviewed elders and traditional healers, learning local culture and traditions. Drawing on his knowledge and skills, he recorded and systematized the people’s collective knowledge and practice on medicinal plants.
He did not use this body of work for his personal career or economic advancement but offered it back for the communities’ benefit and use,” Chestcore said.
Co, it said, helped build community-based health programs among indigenous communities in Mt. Province, Ifugao, Benguet, Abra and Kalinga. He travelled through dangerous mountain terrain to reach and serve remote communities that seemed to have been neglected by government, the group said. Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
First Posted 20:05:00 11/21/2010
BAGUIO CITY—The Community Health Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region (Chestcore) said the death of botanist Leonardo Co, who was killed in a supposed crossfire between government troops and communist rebels in a Leyte forest on Nov. 15 was not an isolated case.
Chestcore, in a statement, said many health professionals working in remote communities have been accused of aiding or being members of the New People’s Army or the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“Instead of being lauded as heroes for choosing to devote their lives to community service and for opting to give up opportunities for career advancement abroad or in private practice, many of them have been harassed, arrested on false pretenses and even killed,” it said.
Co was a staff member of Chestcore in the 1980s. His work in the Cordilleras involved helping communities systematize the knowledge of traditional healers about medicinal plants for their own primary health care.
“It is unfortunate that [Co’s] ... service to the people was suddenly cut short by a few minutes of gunfire. We strongly condemn the killing of [Co] and two of his [companions] in the hands of the [military]. We demand that justice be served and those responsible not be allowed to hide behind the guise that [Co] and his companions were ‘caught in [a] crossfire,’” the group said.
As a former staff member of the Baguio City-based Chestcore Co since 1981 had helped list 122 medicinal plants in the region with their scientific and common names.
Co updated his list and in 1989, in collaboration with the Chestcore, published the book, “Common Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera Region: A Trainor’s Manual for Community-Based Health Programs.” The book was primarily designed to help communities tap their traditional medicinal plants to treat some common diseases without relying too much on prescription drugs, which are not readily available.
Chestcore said, aside from Co, many health professionals have been abused and harassed because of “red tagging.”
It cited as examples the killing of Dr. Bobby de la Paz in Samar and Dr. Juan “Johnny” Escandor in Bicol, the attempted assassination of Dr. Chandu Claver in Kalinga and the continued detention of the 43 health workers arrested in Morong, Rizal, early this year.
Co, his former colleagues said, practiced “science ... for the people.”
“He patiently interviewed elders and traditional healers, learning local culture and traditions. Drawing on his knowledge and skills, he recorded and systematized the people’s collective knowledge and practice on medicinal plants.
He did not use this body of work for his personal career or economic advancement but offered it back for the communities’ benefit and use,” Chestcore said.
Co, it said, helped build community-based health programs among indigenous communities in Mt. Province, Ifugao, Benguet, Abra and Kalinga. He travelled through dangerous mountain terrain to reach and serve remote communities that seemed to have been neglected by government, the group said. Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
Lopez group mourns slay of top botanist, 2 others
November 21, 2010 06:03:00
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—The Lopez Group of companies has expressed sadness over the death of Prof. Leonardo Co, Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo in Leyte on Monday. They were engaged in the process of cataloguing endangered plant species as part of Energy Development Corp.’s Binhi Program in the forests of Kananga, Leyte.
Co was one of the Philippine’s preeminent botanists who had been engaged by EDC to help implement the Binhi program, EDC’s broad-scale reforestation and biodiversity restoration program that aims to plant 10,000 hectares of endemic and endangered plant species over the next 10 years.
Federico R. Lopez, EDC chair and CEO, said, “Leonard has worked alongside the Lopez Group in many of our biodiversity and conservation initiatives. His untimely and senseless death will leave a deep void in the academe, scientific community and in all our hearts. In the same way, Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo have been invaluable contributors to our common goal of protecting and preserving the environment while serving and uplifting the lives of the communities around our various sites. They will be painfully missed by us and the people they have sincerely touched as they went about their daily tasks.”
Cortez was a member of the Tongonan Farmer’s Association while Borromeo was part of EDC’s Community Partnerships Department.
Co was one of the country’s most admired botanists as he is considered as to be one of the last “classically” trained in plant taxonomy and systematics in the Philippines. One of his accomplishments is the “Rafflesia Leonardi, a new species endemic to the rainforest in Cagayan province.
He was 56 years old. His remains are at the Church of The Risen Lord in UP. He will be cremated on Tuesday.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—The Lopez Group of companies has expressed sadness over the death of Prof. Leonardo Co, Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo in Leyte on Monday. They were engaged in the process of cataloguing endangered plant species as part of Energy Development Corp.’s Binhi Program in the forests of Kananga, Leyte.
Co was one of the Philippine’s preeminent botanists who had been engaged by EDC to help implement the Binhi program, EDC’s broad-scale reforestation and biodiversity restoration program that aims to plant 10,000 hectares of endemic and endangered plant species over the next 10 years.
Federico R. Lopez, EDC chair and CEO, said, “Leonard has worked alongside the Lopez Group in many of our biodiversity and conservation initiatives. His untimely and senseless death will leave a deep void in the academe, scientific community and in all our hearts. In the same way, Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo have been invaluable contributors to our common goal of protecting and preserving the environment while serving and uplifting the lives of the communities around our various sites. They will be painfully missed by us and the people they have sincerely touched as they went about their daily tasks.”
Cortez was a member of the Tongonan Farmer’s Association while Borromeo was part of EDC’s Community Partnerships Department.
Co was one of the country’s most admired botanists as he is considered as to be one of the last “classically” trained in plant taxonomy and systematics in the Philippines. One of his accomplishments is the “Rafflesia Leonardi, a new species endemic to the rainforest in Cagayan province.
He was 56 years old. His remains are at the Church of The Risen Lord in UP. He will be cremated on Tuesday.
The irreplaceable 'Sayang-tist'
By Lourdes M. Fernandez
Editor in Chief
BusinessMirror Sunday edition, Nov. 21, 2010
LONG before he started schooling, Leonardo Co loved the outdoors and would often come home dirty and with scratches, clutching "treasures" in his pants pocket----all sorts of stones and plants.
“Ewan ko ba, pero maliit pa iyan, gustong gusto niyang maglibot at tumingin sa mga halaman. Napaka-curious niyang bata. Nung lumaon, dahil palagi niyang sabing inaaral niya ang mga halaman at gagawa siya ng experiment dito, tinawag siya ng mga kaibigan at kaklase na 'sayang-tist' [I don't know why, but even at a tender age he loved to check out plants everywhere he went. He was so curious. Soon, because he kept saying he'll do experiments with them his friends and classmates called him 'sayang -tist'],” said his mother, Emelina Co, referring to a play of words on the boy from Tagudin, Ilocos Sur, who would grow up to be a respected scientist with admirers from around the world.
It was only during the wake for the botanist, slain in what the military called a “crossfire” in a forested hill in Leyte this week, that Emelina said she and her husband, Lian Seng Co, realized how far this obsession with plants had taken their eldest, and only, son.
The afternoon that BusinessMirror paid its respects to the man described widely as “one of the Philippines' top botanists,” his 85- year old father and two of five sisters were finalizing arrangements for the transfer of his remains from Funeraria Paz to the University of the Philippines for Saturday's necrological rites. Their plans had been altered by information that an autopsy was to be conducted on Co, because of conflicting versions of what really happened, as provided by the military and one of two companions of Co who survived the shooting.
The students, UP colleagues, as well as foreign scientists and conservationists at Co's wake on Friday were also torn with grief over the death of another admired botanist---his best friend Dan Lagunzad, who died of cancer just one day after bullets felled Co.
'Not just Filipinos' loss, but the world's'
AMONG those in the crowd who came to pay their respects was New York University post-graduate research scientist Jeanmaire Molina, a UP graduate who had served, for many years, as Co's research assistant in the special biodiversity project he helped set up and nurtured in Palanan, Isabela. Molina, who like her classmate Sandra Yap credited Co with helping get them started in obtaining post-grad studies abroad (both UP girls have PhD's) rushed home on news that their mentor, the man they considered their second father, had died an untimely, tragic death in the forests he loved all his life.
Since 2001, Co and some of his students and research assistants had cared for a precious plot in a site identified as one of the last biodiversity frontiers in the Philippines. The area has since doubled, and was at one time funded by a World Bank affiliate. It is one of a chain of biodiversity plots set up around the world by scientists and conservationists anxious about preserving what may very well hold the future of life on earth.
Dr. James V. LaFrankie, a colleague of Co who is based in La Union, said Co was “simply irreplaceable” in terms of both his commitment and his store of skills and experience. He repeated a phrase often used to describe Co: “a walking encyclopedia on Philippine plants,” and added that right after learning of the botanist's death in Leyte, he and colleagues from around the world all reacted with panic, “who we gonna call?” next time they need to consult on Philippine flora.
“He knew about Philippine plants more than anyone we know. Consider there are 10,000 different kinds of flowering plants in the Philippines. At age 56, you could fairly presume that someone like Leonard had a body of knowledge that was simply irreplaceable.
'A very honest man'
According to LaFrankie, who went to Co's wake on three successive days, Co was respected by foreign scientists and institutions “because he was a very honest man.” He was always “very careful, very precise” in dishing out information, disdained fluff or borderline claims in reports, and would very frankly tell an inquiring party 'I don't know' if he wasn't sure about something, though he'd be considerate enough to say he'll help the party look into it.
To illustrate the level of professional respect Co enjoyed, LaFrankie cited world-class institutions such as the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, the Kew Gardens in London and the Leiden in The Netherlands as among those that regularly consult the UP botanist.
Many of the foreign botanists sought him out because, whenever they came to the country, they knew exactly where to go and didn't lose precious time because Co would point them to the right place, depending on what they were interested to look at.
Though he had lots of friends in academe in Asean countries, Co had really focused most of his time and effort on Philippine flora--- which is rich and diverse enough, “with 7,100 islands,” to occupy a lifetime, noted LaFrankie.
Other colleagues had earlier noted Co seemed always racing against time to identify and tag plants across the archipelago, as if he had been given that task to give all creation a name. In Co's view, creation is for everyone, and it was his lifelong passion to help other scientists find ways to use plants to heal and nourish people. Some of his young followers, who had been returning to their Palanan, Isabela nursery each summer break from post-grad work abroad, tapping modest grants to help sustain it, had once confessed a dream they shared with the idealistic teacher: find a plant-based vaccine for dengue that can be available to millions of people around the world.
Yakking on Globe 'unli' for 2 hours
It's a measure of how much Co loved the Palanan plot that he had earlier told loved ones to spread some of his ashes over it if he dies---a wish he will soon get. In October, just before supertyphoon “Juan” struck, Co reportedly gave friends a scare because he stayed on the mountain even though meteorologists had forecast a direct hit on Isabela province. One Facebook posting after his death showed a smiling professor tending to his “babies,” the plants in the nursery, on the eve of the typhoon, preparing to batten down the place.
As LaFrankie recalled it, Co had apparently been staying at the mountaintop---accessible only by chopper or the “flying coffin” that research associates called their Cessna---days before the typhoon struck, and was updating his inventory and data files. “He was so excited about some of his new finds; it seems he had a new cell phone, and was eager to use his Globe 'unli' so he called me and started yakking about his plants for, I think, two hours.”
After the supertyphoon, when friends started to inquire about how he survived the storm, the story just went around that Co “tied himself to a tree.” Whatever happened, no one was surprised he could survive that, “because the forest was his life. Being with plants gave him the greatest joy.” It is thus so shocking for them to accept that he would be felled by bullets just for being with what he loved best.
Honor him with the truth
If the story of Leonard atop his beloved Palanan mountain during a supertyphoon amused his adoring friends and relatives, the still - unknown truth about what really happened to him in that heavily forested area in Leyte, on that fateful
Monday, is something that haunts them.
“Sana sabihin lang nila ang totoo. Huwag na silang magsinungaling. At huwag silang magbintang. Kung may nagkamali, aminin na lang. [I wish they'd just tell the truth, and not lie or blame the innocent. If someone erred, they must own up to their mistake],” said his father Lian Seng Co, 85, alluding to reports that there was really no crossfire because there was no encounter; and soldiers simply mistook Co's team for rebels. The old man had sobbed after kissing Leonard's image on the editorial cartoon in the BusinessMirror, and whispered quietly, “dapat sana ako nauna kay Boy [I should have gone ahead of my son Boy].”
The plea for the truth brings to mind a line in the Denzel Washington-Meg Ryan starrer “Courage under fire,” where Denzel, after finally putting together the authentic account of what went down in a forbidding desert in Iraq where a courageous US pilot had apparently been killed by friendly fire, said of the report, “If we wish to honor her courage, we can only honor her with the truth.”
No one can bring back what was lost with the death of the country's preeminent botanist. But if he lived all his 56 years teaching us eternal truths about life, creation and stewardship, the least he deserves is the truth about what happened on Monday.
Only the truth can teach us to avoid having the same tragedy befall the precious few young scientists who have followed in his footsteps.
Editor in Chief
BusinessMirror Sunday edition, Nov. 21, 2010
LONG before he started schooling, Leonardo Co loved the outdoors and would often come home dirty and with scratches, clutching "treasures" in his pants pocket----all sorts of stones and plants.
“Ewan ko ba, pero maliit pa iyan, gustong gusto niyang maglibot at tumingin sa mga halaman. Napaka-curious niyang bata. Nung lumaon, dahil palagi niyang sabing inaaral niya ang mga halaman at gagawa siya ng experiment dito, tinawag siya ng mga kaibigan at kaklase na 'sayang-tist' [I don't know why, but even at a tender age he loved to check out plants everywhere he went. He was so curious. Soon, because he kept saying he'll do experiments with them his friends and classmates called him 'sayang -tist'],” said his mother, Emelina Co, referring to a play of words on the boy from Tagudin, Ilocos Sur, who would grow up to be a respected scientist with admirers from around the world.
It was only during the wake for the botanist, slain in what the military called a “crossfire” in a forested hill in Leyte this week, that Emelina said she and her husband, Lian Seng Co, realized how far this obsession with plants had taken their eldest, and only, son.
The afternoon that BusinessMirror paid its respects to the man described widely as “one of the Philippines' top botanists,” his 85- year old father and two of five sisters were finalizing arrangements for the transfer of his remains from Funeraria Paz to the University of the Philippines for Saturday's necrological rites. Their plans had been altered by information that an autopsy was to be conducted on Co, because of conflicting versions of what really happened, as provided by the military and one of two companions of Co who survived the shooting.
The students, UP colleagues, as well as foreign scientists and conservationists at Co's wake on Friday were also torn with grief over the death of another admired botanist---his best friend Dan Lagunzad, who died of cancer just one day after bullets felled Co.
'Not just Filipinos' loss, but the world's'
AMONG those in the crowd who came to pay their respects was New York University post-graduate research scientist Jeanmaire Molina, a UP graduate who had served, for many years, as Co's research assistant in the special biodiversity project he helped set up and nurtured in Palanan, Isabela. Molina, who like her classmate Sandra Yap credited Co with helping get them started in obtaining post-grad studies abroad (both UP girls have PhD's) rushed home on news that their mentor, the man they considered their second father, had died an untimely, tragic death in the forests he loved all his life.
Since 2001, Co and some of his students and research assistants had cared for a precious plot in a site identified as one of the last biodiversity frontiers in the Philippines. The area has since doubled, and was at one time funded by a World Bank affiliate. It is one of a chain of biodiversity plots set up around the world by scientists and conservationists anxious about preserving what may very well hold the future of life on earth.
Dr. James V. LaFrankie, a colleague of Co who is based in La Union, said Co was “simply irreplaceable” in terms of both his commitment and his store of skills and experience. He repeated a phrase often used to describe Co: “a walking encyclopedia on Philippine plants,” and added that right after learning of the botanist's death in Leyte, he and colleagues from around the world all reacted with panic, “who we gonna call?” next time they need to consult on Philippine flora.
“He knew about Philippine plants more than anyone we know. Consider there are 10,000 different kinds of flowering plants in the Philippines. At age 56, you could fairly presume that someone like Leonard had a body of knowledge that was simply irreplaceable.
'A very honest man'
According to LaFrankie, who went to Co's wake on three successive days, Co was respected by foreign scientists and institutions “because he was a very honest man.” He was always “very careful, very precise” in dishing out information, disdained fluff or borderline claims in reports, and would very frankly tell an inquiring party 'I don't know' if he wasn't sure about something, though he'd be considerate enough to say he'll help the party look into it.
To illustrate the level of professional respect Co enjoyed, LaFrankie cited world-class institutions such as the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, the Kew Gardens in London and the Leiden in The Netherlands as among those that regularly consult the UP botanist.
Many of the foreign botanists sought him out because, whenever they came to the country, they knew exactly where to go and didn't lose precious time because Co would point them to the right place, depending on what they were interested to look at.
Though he had lots of friends in academe in Asean countries, Co had really focused most of his time and effort on Philippine flora--- which is rich and diverse enough, “with 7,100 islands,” to occupy a lifetime, noted LaFrankie.
Other colleagues had earlier noted Co seemed always racing against time to identify and tag plants across the archipelago, as if he had been given that task to give all creation a name. In Co's view, creation is for everyone, and it was his lifelong passion to help other scientists find ways to use plants to heal and nourish people. Some of his young followers, who had been returning to their Palanan, Isabela nursery each summer break from post-grad work abroad, tapping modest grants to help sustain it, had once confessed a dream they shared with the idealistic teacher: find a plant-based vaccine for dengue that can be available to millions of people around the world.
Yakking on Globe 'unli' for 2 hours
It's a measure of how much Co loved the Palanan plot that he had earlier told loved ones to spread some of his ashes over it if he dies---a wish he will soon get. In October, just before supertyphoon “Juan” struck, Co reportedly gave friends a scare because he stayed on the mountain even though meteorologists had forecast a direct hit on Isabela province. One Facebook posting after his death showed a smiling professor tending to his “babies,” the plants in the nursery, on the eve of the typhoon, preparing to batten down the place.
As LaFrankie recalled it, Co had apparently been staying at the mountaintop---accessible only by chopper or the “flying coffin” that research associates called their Cessna---days before the typhoon struck, and was updating his inventory and data files. “He was so excited about some of his new finds; it seems he had a new cell phone, and was eager to use his Globe 'unli' so he called me and started yakking about his plants for, I think, two hours.”
After the supertyphoon, when friends started to inquire about how he survived the storm, the story just went around that Co “tied himself to a tree.” Whatever happened, no one was surprised he could survive that, “because the forest was his life. Being with plants gave him the greatest joy.” It is thus so shocking for them to accept that he would be felled by bullets just for being with what he loved best.
Honor him with the truth
If the story of Leonard atop his beloved Palanan mountain during a supertyphoon amused his adoring friends and relatives, the still - unknown truth about what really happened to him in that heavily forested area in Leyte, on that fateful
Monday, is something that haunts them.
“Sana sabihin lang nila ang totoo. Huwag na silang magsinungaling. At huwag silang magbintang. Kung may nagkamali, aminin na lang. [I wish they'd just tell the truth, and not lie or blame the innocent. If someone erred, they must own up to their mistake],” said his father Lian Seng Co, 85, alluding to reports that there was really no crossfire because there was no encounter; and soldiers simply mistook Co's team for rebels. The old man had sobbed after kissing Leonard's image on the editorial cartoon in the BusinessMirror, and whispered quietly, “dapat sana ako nauna kay Boy [I should have gone ahead of my son Boy].”
The plea for the truth brings to mind a line in the Denzel Washington-Meg Ryan starrer “Courage under fire,” where Denzel, after finally putting together the authentic account of what went down in a forbidding desert in Iraq where a courageous US pilot had apparently been killed by friendly fire, said of the report, “If we wish to honor her courage, we can only honor her with the truth.”
No one can bring back what was lost with the death of the country's preeminent botanist. But if he lived all his 56 years teaching us eternal truths about life, creation and stewardship, the least he deserves is the truth about what happened on Monday.
Only the truth can teach us to avoid having the same tragedy befall the precious few young scientists who have followed in his footsteps.
Cordillera NGOs mourn Co, salute him as ‘scientist of the people’
THOM PICAÑA
GMANews.TV
11/21/2010 08:42 PM
BAGUIO CITY — Non-government organizations (NGOs) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) mourned the death of Filipino botanist Leonard Co, saying that this was both the nation’s loss and humanity’s loss as well.
The Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and the Tongtongan Ti Umili (Voice of the People) said in a statement on Nov. 20 that Co was a “great scientist who devoted his life to practicing science and health for the people."
Both groups noted that Co spent the 1980s working as a staff member of the Community Health Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region (CHESTCORE), a community health group that worked in rural villages across the six provinces of (CAR).
While he was more known for documenting the region’s medicinal plants and indigenous knowledge in his 1989 book “Common Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera Region: A Trainor’s Manual for Community-Based Health Programs," Co did more than that, the groups said.
The botanist helped establish community-based health programs for indigenous villages in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Kalinga, the Mountain Province and Ifugao — provinces that have long suffered government neglect and have historically counted among the country’s poorest.
“He endured difficult travel along rocky mountain roads, even trekking up many steep trails on foot to reach communities where government health and social services did not reach," Tongtongan said.
“He trained local health workers on the use of medicinal plants and the practice of acupuncture, so that they could attend to their community’s health needs," the CPA said.
The groups also said that when he was alive, “Leonard was a living example of the practice of ‘science and health for the people’ (who) refused to be confined to the university or the laboratory."
“He patiently interviewed elders and traditional healers, learning local culture and traditions. Drawing on his knowledge and skills, he recorded and systematized the people’s indigenous knowledge and practice on medicinal plants," CPA said.
“Co did not use this body of work for his own personal career or economic advancement, but instead offered it back for the benefit and use of the communities," Tongtongan said.
“In fact, his contribution benefits not only the Cordilleran communities but enriches the body of science and health knowledge we can all draw upon," the groups added.
Indigenous knowledge
Environmental groups, indigenous people’s rights advocates and even many programs under the United Nations are working to save what they call “indigenous knowledge (IK) — or the collective knowledge of indigenous groups throughout the world.
They are doing this because they believe that globalization and acculturation may cause this knowledge to be lost forever — even when such knowledge contributes significantly to humanity’s welfare.
IK encompasses the knowledge that local indigenous communities accumulate over generations of living in a particular environment. It also comprises the technologies, know-how, practices and beliefs that enable the community to achieve stable livelihoods in their environment.
Unique to every culture and society, IK is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals, as well as local experience and historic reality.
Not an isolated case
In a separate statement, CHESTCORE warned that “what happened to Leonard is not an isolated case, and many health professionals working in far-flung communities have been accused of aiding, or of being members of, the New People’s Army or the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“Instead of being lauded as heroes for choosing to devote their lives to community service and for opting to give up opportunities for career advancement abroad or in private practice, many of them have been harassed, arrested on false (charges) and even killed," CHESTCORE said.
The group cited as examples “barrio doctors" Dr. Bobby de la Paz who was kidnapped and killed in Samar during the Martial Law years, Dr. Johnny Escandor who worked in Bicol as a “doctor to the barrio," and the ‘Morong 43, or the 43 health workers arrested in February this year on illegal possession of firearms charges and detained until today.
Co was killed in a reported crossfire between government troops and the New People's Army in Leyte on Nov. 15 as he was searching for tree species suitable for a forest restoration project.
Co, president of the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, died in Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lim-ao, Kananga town in Leyte province while doing research work for the Energy Development Corporation. DM/KBK, GMANews.TV
GMANews.TV
11/21/2010 08:42 PM
BAGUIO CITY — Non-government organizations (NGOs) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) mourned the death of Filipino botanist Leonard Co, saying that this was both the nation’s loss and humanity’s loss as well.
The Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and the Tongtongan Ti Umili (Voice of the People) said in a statement on Nov. 20 that Co was a “great scientist who devoted his life to practicing science and health for the people."
Both groups noted that Co spent the 1980s working as a staff member of the Community Health Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region (CHESTCORE), a community health group that worked in rural villages across the six provinces of (CAR).
While he was more known for documenting the region’s medicinal plants and indigenous knowledge in his 1989 book “Common Medicinal Plants in the Cordillera Region: A Trainor’s Manual for Community-Based Health Programs," Co did more than that, the groups said.
The botanist helped establish community-based health programs for indigenous villages in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Kalinga, the Mountain Province and Ifugao — provinces that have long suffered government neglect and have historically counted among the country’s poorest.
“He endured difficult travel along rocky mountain roads, even trekking up many steep trails on foot to reach communities where government health and social services did not reach," Tongtongan said.
“He trained local health workers on the use of medicinal plants and the practice of acupuncture, so that they could attend to their community’s health needs," the CPA said.
The groups also said that when he was alive, “Leonard was a living example of the practice of ‘science and health for the people’ (who) refused to be confined to the university or the laboratory."
“He patiently interviewed elders and traditional healers, learning local culture and traditions. Drawing on his knowledge and skills, he recorded and systematized the people’s indigenous knowledge and practice on medicinal plants," CPA said.
“Co did not use this body of work for his own personal career or economic advancement, but instead offered it back for the benefit and use of the communities," Tongtongan said.
“In fact, his contribution benefits not only the Cordilleran communities but enriches the body of science and health knowledge we can all draw upon," the groups added.
Indigenous knowledge
Environmental groups, indigenous people’s rights advocates and even many programs under the United Nations are working to save what they call “indigenous knowledge (IK) — or the collective knowledge of indigenous groups throughout the world.
They are doing this because they believe that globalization and acculturation may cause this knowledge to be lost forever — even when such knowledge contributes significantly to humanity’s welfare.
IK encompasses the knowledge that local indigenous communities accumulate over generations of living in a particular environment. It also comprises the technologies, know-how, practices and beliefs that enable the community to achieve stable livelihoods in their environment.
Unique to every culture and society, IK is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals, as well as local experience and historic reality.
Not an isolated case
In a separate statement, CHESTCORE warned that “what happened to Leonard is not an isolated case, and many health professionals working in far-flung communities have been accused of aiding, or of being members of, the New People’s Army or the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“Instead of being lauded as heroes for choosing to devote their lives to community service and for opting to give up opportunities for career advancement abroad or in private practice, many of them have been harassed, arrested on false (charges) and even killed," CHESTCORE said.
The group cited as examples “barrio doctors" Dr. Bobby de la Paz who was kidnapped and killed in Samar during the Martial Law years, Dr. Johnny Escandor who worked in Bicol as a “doctor to the barrio," and the ‘Morong 43, or the 43 health workers arrested in February this year on illegal possession of firearms charges and detained until today.
Co was killed in a reported crossfire between government troops and the New People's Army in Leyte on Nov. 15 as he was searching for tree species suitable for a forest restoration project.
Co, president of the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, died in Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lim-ao, Kananga town in Leyte province while doing research work for the Energy Development Corporation. DM/KBK, GMANews.TV
Leonard Co, son of UP, is home
By Leila B. Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:08:00 11/21/2010
MANILA, Philippines—Botanist and plant taxonomist Leonardo Co may have trekked mountains, climbed trees and hiked through woods throughout the country as he studied plant life, but there was one place he considered home.
Co returned home Saturday—the University of the Philippines in Diliman—accompanied by members of his family, friends and coworkers who cried for justice as they celebrated his life and his works, through which he would continue to live.
Co in his coffin was conferred the honor of being displayed in front of the UP Oblation, the iconic university statue depicting a naked man facing upward with his arms outstretched.
UP officials and personnel, including chancellor Sergio Cao, welcomed UP’s son home and paid tribute. UP President Emerlinda Roman was also present earlier in the day.
“Leonard is a true son of UP,” said Perry Ong, a wildlife biologist and Co’s friend.
“One of your sons has returned, fulfilling the exhortations of the Oblation to serve the people.”
Volley of gunfire
The 56-year-old Co and companions Sofronio Cortes and Julius Borromeo were killed after allegedly being caught in a volley of gunfire between soldiers and rebels in the forests of Kananga, Leyte, on Monday.
But doubts have cropped up about this version of events, especially after a witness said he did not hear answering gunfire. Investigations are expected.
Ong said Co always went back to the university, no matter where he went.
“Since he entered UP in 1972, he never left. No matter where he worked, he always went back to the herbarium,” Ong said, referring to the greenery of plants and herbs for which Co had essentially stood as the curator.
To signify that Co will always be a part of UP, a third of his ashes after cremation would be given to the UP Institute of Biology and scattered under one of UP’s trees.
Book on medicinal plants
Another third would be scattered in Palanan, Isabela, the site of the forest that he had studied so ardently. The rest would be with his family.
Co did not get his degree until 2008 since he was always out in the field. He also holds the distinction of being the only BS Botany graduate who did not submit a thesis. In lieu of a thesis, he submitted his book on the medicinal plants of the Cordilleras.
Throughout the years, he was a constant presence in UP. Even without any formal appointment papers, he worked there and attended faculty meetings, and no one questioned his presence.
Colleagues still laud his expertise, saying that he could point to any plant and handily give its scientific name and species.
He was so dedicated a taxonomist that he named his young daughter Linnaei Marie after the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus.
Van Gogh of botany
Co would also live on in the Rafflesia leonardi, an endemic parasitic plant species and one of the biggest flowers in the Philippines which was named after him.
Julie Barcelona, a botanist who had named “one of the most beautiful rafflesia” after Co, said that he had once told her that he felt like he was the Van Gogh of botany.
“My worth and the things I have done will be appreciated more after I’m dead,” Barcelona recalled Co as saying.
But she said she made sure to let Co know that he was very much appreciated.
And to hear his colleagues and friends tell it, the presence of the coffee-, cooking- and harmonica-loving Co was very valuable—as a botanist and as a friend—when he was still alive.
On Saturday, in tribute programs at the UP, they poured out their gratitude for being part of his life.
‘Love letter to the world’
Jim La Frankie, a scientist who had worked with Co, said the slain botanist reminded him of the Mother Theresa remark that she was a “little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”
“When I think of Leonardo, I remember him as a love letter to the world,” La Frankie said.
He said Co wanted to help and be part of something bigger than himself, and was not a self-centered man.
As a scientist, Co was excellent, he added. He was always a “truth teller about plants, and everybody else was second place.”
Ang Pot, Co’s childhood friend, recalled that the botanist passionately wanted science to be relevant and to help people, hence his focus on the medicinal uses of plants.
He said that Co might not have gotten stellar marks in class, but what he set out to accomplish proved far greater than what his other classmates did.
Co was invited thrice to Harvard University, where his enthusiasm for studying the Philippine flora was commended as remarkable, as attested to by a letter from Emily Wood, senior collections associate of Harvard.
Stuart Davies, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, also remembered Co as an industrious man who worked well into the night documenting the plants
he harvested.
Vic Amoroso of the Central Mindanao University said Co always carried a long stick for collecting specimen and always shared whatever he had found.
‘Secret weapons’
Mundita Lim of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, wept as she recalled how Co, as well as botanist Daniel Lagunzad, were her “secret weapons” whenever she needed data about plants.
Emilio Sotalbo, retired director of the Campus Maintenance Office, said Co was so persistent in going after specimen that he once climbed up a tree quickly but once up, called for help in getting down.
Members of Co’s family recalled with amusement how the brilliant botanist had a penchant for losing or breaking things such as cameras or laptops, after which he would run to his family or friends for help.
But his family indulged Co and allowed him to pursue what he wanted, since he was the eldest and the only male among his siblings, according to his brother-in-law Bobby Austria.
“You will all agree that genius thrives best in a nurturing environment. That environment was his family,” Austria said.
Austria shared the family’s grief and frustration at the apparent lack of action over the death of Co and his companions. He said what was being reported were all “press releases.”
The family wanted nothing less than justice, he said.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:08:00 11/21/2010
MANILA, Philippines—Botanist and plant taxonomist Leonardo Co may have trekked mountains, climbed trees and hiked through woods throughout the country as he studied plant life, but there was one place he considered home.
Co returned home Saturday—the University of the Philippines in Diliman—accompanied by members of his family, friends and coworkers who cried for justice as they celebrated his life and his works, through which he would continue to live.
Co in his coffin was conferred the honor of being displayed in front of the UP Oblation, the iconic university statue depicting a naked man facing upward with his arms outstretched.
UP officials and personnel, including chancellor Sergio Cao, welcomed UP’s son home and paid tribute. UP President Emerlinda Roman was also present earlier in the day.
“Leonard is a true son of UP,” said Perry Ong, a wildlife biologist and Co’s friend.
“One of your sons has returned, fulfilling the exhortations of the Oblation to serve the people.”
Volley of gunfire
The 56-year-old Co and companions Sofronio Cortes and Julius Borromeo were killed after allegedly being caught in a volley of gunfire between soldiers and rebels in the forests of Kananga, Leyte, on Monday.
But doubts have cropped up about this version of events, especially after a witness said he did not hear answering gunfire. Investigations are expected.
Ong said Co always went back to the university, no matter where he went.
“Since he entered UP in 1972, he never left. No matter where he worked, he always went back to the herbarium,” Ong said, referring to the greenery of plants and herbs for which Co had essentially stood as the curator.
To signify that Co will always be a part of UP, a third of his ashes after cremation would be given to the UP Institute of Biology and scattered under one of UP’s trees.
Book on medicinal plants
Another third would be scattered in Palanan, Isabela, the site of the forest that he had studied so ardently. The rest would be with his family.
Co did not get his degree until 2008 since he was always out in the field. He also holds the distinction of being the only BS Botany graduate who did not submit a thesis. In lieu of a thesis, he submitted his book on the medicinal plants of the Cordilleras.
Throughout the years, he was a constant presence in UP. Even without any formal appointment papers, he worked there and attended faculty meetings, and no one questioned his presence.
Colleagues still laud his expertise, saying that he could point to any plant and handily give its scientific name and species.
He was so dedicated a taxonomist that he named his young daughter Linnaei Marie after the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus.
Van Gogh of botany
Co would also live on in the Rafflesia leonardi, an endemic parasitic plant species and one of the biggest flowers in the Philippines which was named after him.
Julie Barcelona, a botanist who had named “one of the most beautiful rafflesia” after Co, said that he had once told her that he felt like he was the Van Gogh of botany.
“My worth and the things I have done will be appreciated more after I’m dead,” Barcelona recalled Co as saying.
But she said she made sure to let Co know that he was very much appreciated.
And to hear his colleagues and friends tell it, the presence of the coffee-, cooking- and harmonica-loving Co was very valuable—as a botanist and as a friend—when he was still alive.
On Saturday, in tribute programs at the UP, they poured out their gratitude for being part of his life.
‘Love letter to the world’
Jim La Frankie, a scientist who had worked with Co, said the slain botanist reminded him of the Mother Theresa remark that she was a “little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”
“When I think of Leonardo, I remember him as a love letter to the world,” La Frankie said.
He said Co wanted to help and be part of something bigger than himself, and was not a self-centered man.
As a scientist, Co was excellent, he added. He was always a “truth teller about plants, and everybody else was second place.”
Ang Pot, Co’s childhood friend, recalled that the botanist passionately wanted science to be relevant and to help people, hence his focus on the medicinal uses of plants.
He said that Co might not have gotten stellar marks in class, but what he set out to accomplish proved far greater than what his other classmates did.
Co was invited thrice to Harvard University, where his enthusiasm for studying the Philippine flora was commended as remarkable, as attested to by a letter from Emily Wood, senior collections associate of Harvard.
Stuart Davies, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, also remembered Co as an industrious man who worked well into the night documenting the plants
he harvested.
Vic Amoroso of the Central Mindanao University said Co always carried a long stick for collecting specimen and always shared whatever he had found.
‘Secret weapons’
Mundita Lim of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, wept as she recalled how Co, as well as botanist Daniel Lagunzad, were her “secret weapons” whenever she needed data about plants.
Emilio Sotalbo, retired director of the Campus Maintenance Office, said Co was so persistent in going after specimen that he once climbed up a tree quickly but once up, called for help in getting down.
Members of Co’s family recalled with amusement how the brilliant botanist had a penchant for losing or breaking things such as cameras or laptops, after which he would run to his family or friends for help.
But his family indulged Co and allowed him to pursue what he wanted, since he was the eldest and the only male among his siblings, according to his brother-in-law Bobby Austria.
“You will all agree that genius thrives best in a nurturing environment. That environment was his family,” Austria said.
Austria shared the family’s grief and frustration at the apparent lack of action over the death of Co and his companions. He said what was being reported were all “press releases.”
The family wanted nothing less than justice, he said.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Military informed of Co’s presence in area, says EDC
By Elvie Roman-Roa, Joey A. Gabieta
Inquirer Visayas
First Posted 05:01:00 11/20/2010
ORMOC CITY, Leyte, Philippines—The Army in Kananga, Leyte, had prior knowledge of the presence of botanist Leonardo Co and his team in the forested area of the town on Monday because they were informed of it beforehand by Energy Development Corp. (EDC).
This was disclosed by Richard Tantoco, president and chief operating officer of the Lopez-owned EDC, in a statement on Thursday. “What we know is that EDC informed the Philippine Army Command responsible for security in the area of Professor Co’s planned route and activities, and had received positive confirmation for them to proceed before they entered the area,” Tantoco said.
“What occurred subsequently remains unclear at the moment, but we will cooperate fully with the investigators tasked to find out precisely what happened,” he said.
Tantoco expressed shock over the killing of Co, EDC-Environmental Management Division forest guard Sofronio Cortez, and Tongonan Farmers' Association (Tofa) member Julius Borromeo, and said EDC was joining the bereaved families in prayers.
Co, a biodiversity consultant of EDC, and his companions died in a reported crossfire between troops of the Army's 19th Infantry Battalion (IB) and suspected communist rebels in Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lim-ao, Kananga, at noon on November 15.
The botanist worked with the Lopez Group in its biodiversity and forest conservation initiatives.
He was in Kananga to help EDC implement Binhi, a reforestation and biodiversity restoration program intended “to plant 10,000 hectares of endemic and endangered plant species over the next 10 years in the forests of Kananga,” according to the EDC statement.
Federico R. Lopez, EDC chair and chief executive officer, also expressed regret over the deaths of Co, Cortez and Borromeo.
“They will be painfully missed by us and the people they have sincerely touched as they went about their daily tasks,” Lopez said.
Cooperation promised
Tantoco said EDC would cooperate with the authorities in the investigation of “how such a tragedy like this could have happened.”
The Armed Forces, through its spokesperson Brigadier General Jose Mabanta Jr., also said it would cooperate in any congressional probe into the killing of the three men.
But Mabanta also said it had faith that the Philippine National Police and the parallel internal investigation by the Inspector General's Office of the Army's 8th Infantry Division (ID) would “uncover the truth.”
The 19th IB is under the operational control of the 8th ID, which in turn is under the AFP Central Command.
Militant lawmakers have proposed a House inquiry into the deaths of Co, Cortez and Borromeo, two of whose companions who survived said they had been mistaken for New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
“If desired by the authorities we will cooperate [in a congressional inquiry]. The important thing right now is we want the truth to prevail,” Mabanta on Friday told the Inquirer in Manila.
“The most important thing is to uncover the truth, and if it requires an investigation outside of the normal bodies, then we will abide [by it],” he said.
Mabanta said the military would make its personnel available for the proposed House inquiry.
“If our men have performed below par, we'll see to it that commensurate punishments are given. Whoever is at fault, we will make them answer for it,” he said.
Mabanta said the military also grieved for the deaths even as the commanding officers of the soldiers involved had been quick to clear their men.
“The sad part is we are saddened by the loss of lives ... We are certainly against it. The insurgency war has taken so much toll especially on noncombatants,” Mabanta said.
On the reported suggestion by the underground Communist Party of the Philippines that a “joint investigation” be conducted, Mabanta said the military would “study” it.
But he initially scoffed at the idea, saying: “How can they do that when they continue to hide?”
Local inquiry
The Kananga police had said they would conduct an impartial investigation of the killings.
Senior Inspector Joel Camacho, the Kananga police chief, earlier said he had invited Lieutenant Colonel Federico Tutaan, commanding officer of the 19th IB, and the soldiers involved in the purported encounter with the NPA to provide information.
Tutaan had said that he would welcome any investigation, and that his men were in the area as part of legitimate military operations.
The Kananga police have yet to release copies of the spot report on the incident and of the statement of Policarpio Balute, a Tofa member who had served as the second guide of Co’s team.
Balute and Roniño Gibe, a contractual forester with EDC's corporate responsibility department, survived the purported crossfire.
With a report from Dona Z. Pazzibugan in Manila
Inquirer Visayas
First Posted 05:01:00 11/20/2010
ORMOC CITY, Leyte, Philippines—The Army in Kananga, Leyte, had prior knowledge of the presence of botanist Leonardo Co and his team in the forested area of the town on Monday because they were informed of it beforehand by Energy Development Corp. (EDC).
This was disclosed by Richard Tantoco, president and chief operating officer of the Lopez-owned EDC, in a statement on Thursday. “What we know is that EDC informed the Philippine Army Command responsible for security in the area of Professor Co’s planned route and activities, and had received positive confirmation for them to proceed before they entered the area,” Tantoco said.
“What occurred subsequently remains unclear at the moment, but we will cooperate fully with the investigators tasked to find out precisely what happened,” he said.
Tantoco expressed shock over the killing of Co, EDC-Environmental Management Division forest guard Sofronio Cortez, and Tongonan Farmers' Association (Tofa) member Julius Borromeo, and said EDC was joining the bereaved families in prayers.
Co, a biodiversity consultant of EDC, and his companions died in a reported crossfire between troops of the Army's 19th Infantry Battalion (IB) and suspected communist rebels in Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lim-ao, Kananga, at noon on November 15.
The botanist worked with the Lopez Group in its biodiversity and forest conservation initiatives.
He was in Kananga to help EDC implement Binhi, a reforestation and biodiversity restoration program intended “to plant 10,000 hectares of endemic and endangered plant species over the next 10 years in the forests of Kananga,” according to the EDC statement.
Federico R. Lopez, EDC chair and chief executive officer, also expressed regret over the deaths of Co, Cortez and Borromeo.
“They will be painfully missed by us and the people they have sincerely touched as they went about their daily tasks,” Lopez said.
Cooperation promised
Tantoco said EDC would cooperate with the authorities in the investigation of “how such a tragedy like this could have happened.”
The Armed Forces, through its spokesperson Brigadier General Jose Mabanta Jr., also said it would cooperate in any congressional probe into the killing of the three men.
But Mabanta also said it had faith that the Philippine National Police and the parallel internal investigation by the Inspector General's Office of the Army's 8th Infantry Division (ID) would “uncover the truth.”
The 19th IB is under the operational control of the 8th ID, which in turn is under the AFP Central Command.
Militant lawmakers have proposed a House inquiry into the deaths of Co, Cortez and Borromeo, two of whose companions who survived said they had been mistaken for New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
“If desired by the authorities we will cooperate [in a congressional inquiry]. The important thing right now is we want the truth to prevail,” Mabanta on Friday told the Inquirer in Manila.
“The most important thing is to uncover the truth, and if it requires an investigation outside of the normal bodies, then we will abide [by it],” he said.
Mabanta said the military would make its personnel available for the proposed House inquiry.
“If our men have performed below par, we'll see to it that commensurate punishments are given. Whoever is at fault, we will make them answer for it,” he said.
Mabanta said the military also grieved for the deaths even as the commanding officers of the soldiers involved had been quick to clear their men.
“The sad part is we are saddened by the loss of lives ... We are certainly against it. The insurgency war has taken so much toll especially on noncombatants,” Mabanta said.
On the reported suggestion by the underground Communist Party of the Philippines that a “joint investigation” be conducted, Mabanta said the military would “study” it.
But he initially scoffed at the idea, saying: “How can they do that when they continue to hide?”
Local inquiry
The Kananga police had said they would conduct an impartial investigation of the killings.
Senior Inspector Joel Camacho, the Kananga police chief, earlier said he had invited Lieutenant Colonel Federico Tutaan, commanding officer of the 19th IB, and the soldiers involved in the purported encounter with the NPA to provide information.
Tutaan had said that he would welcome any investigation, and that his men were in the area as part of legitimate military operations.
The Kananga police have yet to release copies of the spot report on the incident and of the statement of Policarpio Balute, a Tofa member who had served as the second guide of Co’s team.
Balute and Roniño Gibe, a contractual forester with EDC's corporate responsibility department, survived the purported crossfire.
With a report from Dona Z. Pazzibugan in Manila
Leonard Co: Scientist for the People
Published on November 20, 2010
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
Leonardo Co wrote two very important books: on medicinal plants and the forest trees of Palanan. He could speak fluent Filipino, English, Mandarin, and Latin. He could sing, play classical Chinese music with his harmonica, and make people laugh with his antics. But most of all, he dedicated his life in the service of the people.
MANILA – Leonardo Co was killed along with two others Sofronio Cortez, a forest guard and Julius Borromeo,a farmer, in Kananga, Leyte, while conducting a research about the biodiversity of trees within the compound of the Energy Development compound on the fateful day of November 15.
Lt. Col. Federico Tutaan of the 19th infantry Battalion claimed that Co and his companions were killed in a crossfire. But witnesses said the gunshots were coming only from the direction of the soldiers. Whatever would be the findings of the investigation, the result would remain the same, the country lost a multi-talented and a great man.
Leonard Co was described by his friends and colleagues as a simple man, a great taxonomist who did not use his profession to earn money. Instead, he put his heart and mind to his passion with an aim to serve the people.
It was shocking news for all of his colleagues and friends that a man who had, in his entire life, been exploring the Philippines’ mountains and forests to discover new species was killed.
Co, 56 was survived by his wife Glenda and daughter Linnea Marie, eight years old.
In a tribute given by his friends and colleagues in his wake at Funeraria Paz, people laughed and shed tears upon hearing different stories and experiences working with one of the finest, if not the finest, botanist the country has ever produced.
“A person like Leonard is rare,” said Eleanor Jara, executive director of the Council of Health and Development (CHD) who worked with Co in the Cordillera region in 1980s. Co was also doing research then for his book on medicinal plants in the Cordillera region.
Passion for Science
Since his childhood, Co’s interest was science. Dr. Floresita Co-Austria, youngest sister of Co said his brother started collecting insects and then later on he got interested in chemicals. “He had test tubes and has a collection of chemicals and he experimented with it,” Austria told Bulatlat. Austria recalled that Co would let them smell mixed chemicals and told them it was a perfume. “When we smelled it, it had an awful smell.”
Austria said when his brother entered the University of the Philippines, his first course was Chemical Engineer and later on shifted to Botany. Ong said Co’s biology teacher in high school at Philippine Chinese High School, Benito Tan who became a world-renowned moss taxonomist probably influenced Co to take an interest in Botany. A blog post in memoriam for Co by Mabi David revealed that Co accompanied Tan in his weekly mountain treks. He was also given a book by Tan, Flora of Manila and started studying botanical terminology.
Rey Casambre who met Co during martial law in 1975 when Co was in his third year as botany major in UP said: “He belonged then to a group of bright and dedicated activists who were either undergrad majors or graduates of botany or zoology.” The group of Co was part of a larger network of Filipino scientists and technologists who were all committed to using their scientific and technical knowledge and skills to serve the Filipino people, Casambre added.
Jara said Co also used his skills in determining medicinal plants in the Cordillera region with people in the countryside as beneficiaries. In a news report, Community Health, Education, Services and Training in Cordillera Region (Chestcore) said that Co listed 122 medicinal plants with their illustrations and scientific and common names. Each plant has its description that includes habitat, distribution, parts utilized, indications, directions for use, dosage, and precautionary notes on toxicity and contra-indications. Co helped the communities of the Cordillera for helping, through his work, “the communities systematize the knowledge of traditional healers about medicinal plants for their primary health care.”
Prior to Co’s Cordillera Medicinal Plants, he together with his group I977 at UP diligently studied medicinal plants in the country with an aim to popularize local herbal medicines and the production of medicines from readily available and accessible materials. “It’s in his heart that whatever he is doing is for the benefit of the people,” Casambre said in a separate interview with Bulatlat. The group worked on the book for at least five years, Casambre said. “Manual on Some Philippine Medicinal Plants”was first published in mimeographed 8 1/2 x 13, in the name of the UP Botanical Society where majority of the group belonged.
“As far as we know, this was a pioneering and seminal work. Not long afterwards some botanists published glossy books on Philippine medicinal plants. But none of them could compare to the wealth of material in the original 1977 Philippine Medicinal Plants manual,” said Casambre.
In 2006, Forest Trees of Palanan, Philippines: A study in population ecology was published. According to Ong, in 16 hectares of Palanan forest in Isabela, Co marked and measured every tree and identified every plant. “He counted all the trees, at least 100,000. And you would see those trees in this book mapped one by one.” Ong added that Co’s study of trees did not end there. Co went back to the forest every five years to see the developments of the species. On Oct. 15 during the height of typhoon Juan, Ong said Co was in Palanan doing his research for the second part of the said book.
Co is the president of the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, Inc. when he got killed.
Refflesia leonardi, one of the largest flowers found in the Philippines, was named after Co.
Multi-talented and Non-Conformist
Co was not only remembered as a taxonomist who spent more time in the mountains and in his little space at the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Biology’s herbarium studying his collected specimens.
Elena Ragrario, a classmate and college friend of Co revealed that he is a multitalented taxonomist. “He also play harmonica. He said harmonica is the only musical instrument that you can bring in your pocket. He always has his harmonica wherever we were together with other friends. He indulged us in classical Chinese music.” She also said Co could sing International in three languages, English, Tagalong and in Chinese.
Co is half Chinese and half Filipino, and he proudly told his friends that he is a double G.I.–genuine Ilocano and genuine Intsik (Chinese), added Ragrario. He was also funny yet temperamental at times, Ong said, adding that his foul mood easily dissipated.. A colleague also said that Co could speak not only Mandarin, he also studied Latin so he could properly identify the plants he was studying. Co also studied acupuncture Mon Ramirez said, and could name the points in Chinese.
Dr. Edelina Dela Paz also a friend of Co said that he was a walking encyclopedia, “You would gain knowledge after a chat with him because of information he shared.”
He also wrote poetry, Ragrario said.
Co was a non-conformist Casambre told Bulatlat. Co got his degree in BS Botany in 2008. “It really did not matter to him whether he finished his degree or not. He was driven to do his passion and to make it useful for the people.”
Ong said Co got his diploma when the Institute of Biology asked the College of Science to give Co his degree crediting his works as taxonomist. “There was a debate of course because of technicalities, but finally the College of Science gave him his degree.” His friends said that he should have been given more than a degree. They believe he deserved a Ph. D. His book “Forest Trees of Palanan, Philippines ” could serve as his dissertation.
The family of Co was overwhelmed with the testimonies shared by Co’s colleagues. His father, Co Lian Sing said his sadness went away because of the revelations of Co’s friends and colleagues. “We did not know that he had accomplished many things.” (Bulatlat.com)
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
Leonardo Co wrote two very important books: on medicinal plants and the forest trees of Palanan. He could speak fluent Filipino, English, Mandarin, and Latin. He could sing, play classical Chinese music with his harmonica, and make people laugh with his antics. But most of all, he dedicated his life in the service of the people.
MANILA – Leonardo Co was killed along with two others Sofronio Cortez, a forest guard and Julius Borromeo,a farmer, in Kananga, Leyte, while conducting a research about the biodiversity of trees within the compound of the Energy Development compound on the fateful day of November 15.
Lt. Col. Federico Tutaan of the 19th infantry Battalion claimed that Co and his companions were killed in a crossfire. But witnesses said the gunshots were coming only from the direction of the soldiers. Whatever would be the findings of the investigation, the result would remain the same, the country lost a multi-talented and a great man.
Leonard Co was described by his friends and colleagues as a simple man, a great taxonomist who did not use his profession to earn money. Instead, he put his heart and mind to his passion with an aim to serve the people.
It was shocking news for all of his colleagues and friends that a man who had, in his entire life, been exploring the Philippines’ mountains and forests to discover new species was killed.
Co, 56 was survived by his wife Glenda and daughter Linnea Marie, eight years old.
In a tribute given by his friends and colleagues in his wake at Funeraria Paz, people laughed and shed tears upon hearing different stories and experiences working with one of the finest, if not the finest, botanist the country has ever produced.
“A person like Leonard is rare,” said Eleanor Jara, executive director of the Council of Health and Development (CHD) who worked with Co in the Cordillera region in 1980s. Co was also doing research then for his book on medicinal plants in the Cordillera region.
Passion for Science
Since his childhood, Co’s interest was science. Dr. Floresita Co-Austria, youngest sister of Co said his brother started collecting insects and then later on he got interested in chemicals. “He had test tubes and has a collection of chemicals and he experimented with it,” Austria told Bulatlat. Austria recalled that Co would let them smell mixed chemicals and told them it was a perfume. “When we smelled it, it had an awful smell.”
Austria said when his brother entered the University of the Philippines, his first course was Chemical Engineer and later on shifted to Botany. Ong said Co’s biology teacher in high school at Philippine Chinese High School, Benito Tan who became a world-renowned moss taxonomist probably influenced Co to take an interest in Botany. A blog post in memoriam for Co by Mabi David revealed that Co accompanied Tan in his weekly mountain treks. He was also given a book by Tan, Flora of Manila and started studying botanical terminology.
Rey Casambre who met Co during martial law in 1975 when Co was in his third year as botany major in UP said: “He belonged then to a group of bright and dedicated activists who were either undergrad majors or graduates of botany or zoology.” The group of Co was part of a larger network of Filipino scientists and technologists who were all committed to using their scientific and technical knowledge and skills to serve the Filipino people, Casambre added.
Jara said Co also used his skills in determining medicinal plants in the Cordillera region with people in the countryside as beneficiaries. In a news report, Community Health, Education, Services and Training in Cordillera Region (Chestcore) said that Co listed 122 medicinal plants with their illustrations and scientific and common names. Each plant has its description that includes habitat, distribution, parts utilized, indications, directions for use, dosage, and precautionary notes on toxicity and contra-indications. Co helped the communities of the Cordillera for helping, through his work, “the communities systematize the knowledge of traditional healers about medicinal plants for their primary health care.”
Prior to Co’s Cordillera Medicinal Plants, he together with his group I977 at UP diligently studied medicinal plants in the country with an aim to popularize local herbal medicines and the production of medicines from readily available and accessible materials. “It’s in his heart that whatever he is doing is for the benefit of the people,” Casambre said in a separate interview with Bulatlat. The group worked on the book for at least five years, Casambre said. “Manual on Some Philippine Medicinal Plants”was first published in mimeographed 8 1/2 x 13, in the name of the UP Botanical Society where majority of the group belonged.
“As far as we know, this was a pioneering and seminal work. Not long afterwards some botanists published glossy books on Philippine medicinal plants. But none of them could compare to the wealth of material in the original 1977 Philippine Medicinal Plants manual,” said Casambre.
In 2006, Forest Trees of Palanan, Philippines: A study in population ecology was published. According to Ong, in 16 hectares of Palanan forest in Isabela, Co marked and measured every tree and identified every plant. “He counted all the trees, at least 100,000. And you would see those trees in this book mapped one by one.” Ong added that Co’s study of trees did not end there. Co went back to the forest every five years to see the developments of the species. On Oct. 15 during the height of typhoon Juan, Ong said Co was in Palanan doing his research for the second part of the said book.
Co is the president of the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, Inc. when he got killed.
Refflesia leonardi, one of the largest flowers found in the Philippines, was named after Co.
Multi-talented and Non-Conformist
Co was not only remembered as a taxonomist who spent more time in the mountains and in his little space at the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Biology’s herbarium studying his collected specimens.
Elena Ragrario, a classmate and college friend of Co revealed that he is a multitalented taxonomist. “He also play harmonica. He said harmonica is the only musical instrument that you can bring in your pocket. He always has his harmonica wherever we were together with other friends. He indulged us in classical Chinese music.” She also said Co could sing International in three languages, English, Tagalong and in Chinese.
Co is half Chinese and half Filipino, and he proudly told his friends that he is a double G.I.–genuine Ilocano and genuine Intsik (Chinese), added Ragrario. He was also funny yet temperamental at times, Ong said, adding that his foul mood easily dissipated.. A colleague also said that Co could speak not only Mandarin, he also studied Latin so he could properly identify the plants he was studying. Co also studied acupuncture Mon Ramirez said, and could name the points in Chinese.
Dr. Edelina Dela Paz also a friend of Co said that he was a walking encyclopedia, “You would gain knowledge after a chat with him because of information he shared.”
He also wrote poetry, Ragrario said.
Co was a non-conformist Casambre told Bulatlat. Co got his degree in BS Botany in 2008. “It really did not matter to him whether he finished his degree or not. He was driven to do his passion and to make it useful for the people.”
Ong said Co got his diploma when the Institute of Biology asked the College of Science to give Co his degree crediting his works as taxonomist. “There was a debate of course because of technicalities, but finally the College of Science gave him his degree.” His friends said that he should have been given more than a degree. They believe he deserved a Ph. D. His book “Forest Trees of Palanan, Philippines ” could serve as his dissertation.
The family of Co was overwhelmed with the testimonies shared by Co’s colleagues. His father, Co Lian Sing said his sadness went away because of the revelations of Co’s friends and colleagues. “We did not know that he had accomplished many things.” (Bulatlat.com)
Slain botanist goes home to UP
By Leila B. Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:56:00 11/20/2010
MANILA, Philippines—Botanist and plant taxonomist Leonardo Co may have found his calling in the wild, but there was one place he considered his home.
Co returned to that cherished site on Saturday—the University of the Philippines in Diliman—accompanied by family, friends and co-workers who celebrated his life and his works, through which he would continue to live, even as they cried for justice.
Co may have trekked mountains, climbed trees and hiked through woods throughout the country as he studied plant life, but the state university was a place to where he always returned.
On Saturday, UP's son came home.
Co's coffin was taken out and placed as an offering in front of the UP Oblation, the iconic university statue depicting a naked man facing upward with his arms outstretched.
UP officials and personnel, including Chancellor Sergio Cao, welcomed him and paid tribute. UP President Emerlinda Roman was also present earlier in the day.
“Leonard is a true son of UP,” Ong said. “One of your sons has returned, fulfilling the exhortations of the oblation to serve the people.”
The 56-year-old Co and companions Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo were killed when they were supposedly caught in a volley of gunfire between soldiers and rebels in the forests of Kananga, Leyte, on Monday. But doubts have cropped up about this version of events, especially after a witness said he did not hear answering gunfire. Investigations are expected.
Ong said Co always went back to the university, no matter where he went.
“Since he entered UP in 1972, he never left. No matter where he worked, he always went back to the herbarium,” Ong said, referring to the patch of plants and herbs for which Co had essentially stood as the curator.
Co will always be a part of UP, and not just his spirit. After his cremation, a third of his ashes would be given to the UP Institute of Biology and would be scattered under one of the trees on campus.
Another third would be scattered in Palanan, Isabela, the site of the forest that he had studied so ardently. The rest would remain with his family.
Co did not get his degree until 2008 since he was always out in the field. He also holds the distinction of being the only BS Botany graduate who did not submit a thesis. In lieu of a thesis, he submitted his book on the medicinal plants of the Cordillera Mountains.
Throughout the years, he was a constant presence in UP. Even without any formal appointment papers, he worked there and attended faculty meetings, and no one questioned his presence.
Colleagues remember his expertise well, saying that he could usually point to a plant and give its scientific name and species.
He was so dedicated a taxonomist that he named his young daughter Linnaei Marie, with wife, Glenda, after the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus.
Co would also live on in the Rafflesia Leonardi, an endemic parasitic plant species and one of the biggest flowers in the Philippines, which was named after him.
Julie Barcelona, a botanist who had named “one of the most beautiful rafflesia” after Co, said that he had once told her that he felt like he was the Van Gogh of botany.
“My worth and the things I have done will be appreciated more after I'm dead,” Barcelona recalled Co as saying. But she said she made sure to let Co know that he was very much appreciated.
And to hear his colleagues and friends tell it, the coffee, cooking and harmonica-loving Co was a very valuable presence to them—as a botanist and as a friend—when he was still alive.
On Saturday, in tribute programs at the UP, they poured out their gratitude for being part of his life.
Jim La Frankie, a scientist who had worked with Co, said the slain botanist reminded him of the Mother Theresa quote that she was a “little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”
“When I think of Leonardo, I remember him as a love letter to the world,” La Frankie said.
He said Co wanted to help and be part of something bigger than himself, and was not a self-centered man.
As a scientist, Co was excellent. He was always a “truth teller about plants, and everybody else was second place,” he added.
Ang Pot, Co's childhood friend, recalled that the botanist passionately wanted science to be relevant and to help people, hence his focus on the medicinal uses of plants.
He said that Co may not have gotten stellar marks in class, but what he set out to accomplish proved far greater than what his other classmates did.
Co was invited thrice to Harvard University, where his enthusiasm for studying the Philippine flora proved remarkable, as attested to by a letter from Emily Wood, senior collections associate of Harvard.
Stuart Davies, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, also remembered Co as an industrious man who worked well into the night documenting the plants he got.
Vic Amoroso of the Central Mindanao University said Co always carried a “sungkit,” or stick, for collecting specimens and always shared whatever he had.
Mundita Lim of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, wept as she recalled how Co, as well as botanist Daniel Lagunzad, were her “secret weapons” whenever she needed data about plants.
Emilio Sotalbo, who has retired as the director of the Campus Maintenance Office, said Co was so persistent in going after specimens that he once climbed up a tree quickly. But when he was up on the tree, he called down to Sotalbo, not knowing how he would get back on the ground.
Co's loved ones also laughingly recalled how the botanist had a penchant for losing or breaking things such as cameras or laptops, after which he would run to his family or friends for help.
But his family indulged Co and allowed him to pursue what he wanted, since he was the eldest and the only male among his siblings, according to his brother-in-law Bobby Austria.
“You will all agree that genius thrives best in a nurturing environment. That environment was his family,” Austria said.
But he also shared the family's grief and frustration at the apparent lack of action over the death of Co and his companions. He said what was being reported were all “press releases.”
The family wants nothing less than justice, he said.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:56:00 11/20/2010
MANILA, Philippines—Botanist and plant taxonomist Leonardo Co may have found his calling in the wild, but there was one place he considered his home.
Co returned to that cherished site on Saturday—the University of the Philippines in Diliman—accompanied by family, friends and co-workers who celebrated his life and his works, through which he would continue to live, even as they cried for justice.
Co may have trekked mountains, climbed trees and hiked through woods throughout the country as he studied plant life, but the state university was a place to where he always returned.
On Saturday, UP's son came home.
Co's coffin was taken out and placed as an offering in front of the UP Oblation, the iconic university statue depicting a naked man facing upward with his arms outstretched.
UP officials and personnel, including Chancellor Sergio Cao, welcomed him and paid tribute. UP President Emerlinda Roman was also present earlier in the day.
“Leonard is a true son of UP,” Ong said. “One of your sons has returned, fulfilling the exhortations of the oblation to serve the people.”
The 56-year-old Co and companions Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo were killed when they were supposedly caught in a volley of gunfire between soldiers and rebels in the forests of Kananga, Leyte, on Monday. But doubts have cropped up about this version of events, especially after a witness said he did not hear answering gunfire. Investigations are expected.
Ong said Co always went back to the university, no matter where he went.
“Since he entered UP in 1972, he never left. No matter where he worked, he always went back to the herbarium,” Ong said, referring to the patch of plants and herbs for which Co had essentially stood as the curator.
Co will always be a part of UP, and not just his spirit. After his cremation, a third of his ashes would be given to the UP Institute of Biology and would be scattered under one of the trees on campus.
Another third would be scattered in Palanan, Isabela, the site of the forest that he had studied so ardently. The rest would remain with his family.
Co did not get his degree until 2008 since he was always out in the field. He also holds the distinction of being the only BS Botany graduate who did not submit a thesis. In lieu of a thesis, he submitted his book on the medicinal plants of the Cordillera Mountains.
Throughout the years, he was a constant presence in UP. Even without any formal appointment papers, he worked there and attended faculty meetings, and no one questioned his presence.
Colleagues remember his expertise well, saying that he could usually point to a plant and give its scientific name and species.
He was so dedicated a taxonomist that he named his young daughter Linnaei Marie, with wife, Glenda, after the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus.
Co would also live on in the Rafflesia Leonardi, an endemic parasitic plant species and one of the biggest flowers in the Philippines, which was named after him.
Julie Barcelona, a botanist who had named “one of the most beautiful rafflesia” after Co, said that he had once told her that he felt like he was the Van Gogh of botany.
“My worth and the things I have done will be appreciated more after I'm dead,” Barcelona recalled Co as saying. But she said she made sure to let Co know that he was very much appreciated.
And to hear his colleagues and friends tell it, the coffee, cooking and harmonica-loving Co was a very valuable presence to them—as a botanist and as a friend—when he was still alive.
On Saturday, in tribute programs at the UP, they poured out their gratitude for being part of his life.
Jim La Frankie, a scientist who had worked with Co, said the slain botanist reminded him of the Mother Theresa quote that she was a “little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”
“When I think of Leonardo, I remember him as a love letter to the world,” La Frankie said.
He said Co wanted to help and be part of something bigger than himself, and was not a self-centered man.
As a scientist, Co was excellent. He was always a “truth teller about plants, and everybody else was second place,” he added.
Ang Pot, Co's childhood friend, recalled that the botanist passionately wanted science to be relevant and to help people, hence his focus on the medicinal uses of plants.
He said that Co may not have gotten stellar marks in class, but what he set out to accomplish proved far greater than what his other classmates did.
Co was invited thrice to Harvard University, where his enthusiasm for studying the Philippine flora proved remarkable, as attested to by a letter from Emily Wood, senior collections associate of Harvard.
Stuart Davies, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, also remembered Co as an industrious man who worked well into the night documenting the plants he got.
Vic Amoroso of the Central Mindanao University said Co always carried a “sungkit,” or stick, for collecting specimens and always shared whatever he had.
Mundita Lim of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, wept as she recalled how Co, as well as botanist Daniel Lagunzad, were her “secret weapons” whenever she needed data about plants.
Emilio Sotalbo, who has retired as the director of the Campus Maintenance Office, said Co was so persistent in going after specimens that he once climbed up a tree quickly. But when he was up on the tree, he called down to Sotalbo, not knowing how he would get back on the ground.
Co's loved ones also laughingly recalled how the botanist had a penchant for losing or breaking things such as cameras or laptops, after which he would run to his family or friends for help.
But his family indulged Co and allowed him to pursue what he wanted, since he was the eldest and the only male among his siblings, according to his brother-in-law Bobby Austria.
“You will all agree that genius thrives best in a nurturing environment. That environment was his family,” Austria said.
But he also shared the family's grief and frustration at the apparent lack of action over the death of Co and his companions. He said what was being reported were all “press releases.”
The family wants nothing less than justice, he said.
Kin of farmers killed with botanist demand impartial probe
By Joey A. Gabieta
Inquirer Visayas
First Posted 17:19:00 11/20/2010
ORMOC CITY, Philippines – The families of the two farmers who were killed together with botanist Leonardo Co on November 15 in the forest of Kananga town want an impartial investigation to find out who were really responsible for their deaths.
Whether or not they were caught in the crossfire or were mistaken for rebels by soldiers, the truth has to come out so that the culprits can be brought to justice, said Teresita Borromeo, widow of farmer Julio Borromeo, 50.
“Whoever were responsible have to be punished. They killed my husband as if he was a pig. There was a big hole in his chest,” the 45-year-old widow said in an interview at her house in Tongonan, Ormoc, on Thursday.
Arsenia, the widow Sofronio Cortez, could not even look at her husband lying in a coffin at the wake held at their home in Barangay (village) Hilapnitan, Baybay, Leyte.
Arsenia said she still could not accept that her 50-year-old husband had died so senselessly.
“I am still confused as what happened to my husband and his group. I really don’t know. But we are seeking justice for his death. Up to now, I don’t have the strength to look at his body lying in the coffin,” the widow said in an interview at their house on Saturday.
Borromeo and Cortez will both be buried on Wednesday – Cortez at the Catholic cemetery in Baybay and Borromeo in Ormoc City.
Borromeo left six young children. Cortez had three children whose ages range from 16 to 23.
Teresita Borromeo said she could not believe that their six young children lost their father in such a manner.
“On that day, he left our house at around 6 in the morning. And by 7 p.m., I was expecting him to return. But it never happened,” she said.
Borromeo, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association, contractually hired by the Energy Development Corp. to plant trees, was assigned by EDC along with Cortez, an EDC forest guard, and two others to assist Co in documenting the tree specimens in the forest in Kananga adjoining the EDC-run Tongonan geothermal power plant.
Co and his team were in a forested area of Barangay Lim-ao and were exchanging jokes just minutes before they were fired upon, said one of the two survivors, Policarpio Balute, 33.
“During that time, we kept on cracking jokes to doc’s [Co] amusement. It was raining. Then suddenly, we heard a successive burst of gunfire. The doctor asked us all to lie down on the ground so we’ll not be hit,” said Balute, whom the Inquirer interviewed at the house of his sister in Barangay Tongonan on Thursday.
“He [Co] kept on shouting to stop the firing, repeatedly shouting, ‘Sir, please stop. Have mercy on us. We are not enemies.’ But they never stopped. The burst of gunfire was so deafening and in rapid succession as if it was like New Year,” Balute added.
Balute, however, would not say who Co referred to as “Sir.”
“I saw the doctor raising his both hands, crying, pleading for them to stop firing at us. But his pleadings were ignored by them as they kept on firing towards our direction,” said Balute.
Balute said he was able crawl away from the range of fire and ran so fast for over an hour until he reached the EDC office and reported the incident to the company’s chief security officer, whom he identified as “Sir Jojo Pascual.”
The other survivor, Niño Gibe, was inside their service vehicle parked some 90 meters away from the scene. He was left unharmed by men dressed in camouflage, Balute claimed.
Balute also said he had no idea if there were New People’s Army rebels in the area, as claimed by the 19th Infantry Battalion that claimed to have figured in a firefight with rebels that led to the death of Co, Borromeo and Cortez.
“But at that time, we were the only people there,” said Balute.
The bodies of Co, Cortez and Borromeo were retrieved hours later loaded on a truck owned by the EDC.
They were first taken to the Kananga police station, then to the Kananga Community Hospital and finally to the V. Rama Funeral Homes in Ormoc City.
Senior Inspector Joel Camacho, Kananga’s police chief, recalled that the bodies of the three victims were taken to the police station past 4 p.m., or more than four hours after the 12:15 p.m. shooting happened.
Camacho said he had no idea that one of the dead was a well-known figure.
Camacho declined to say who could be responsible for the death of the three, saying that an investigation was still on-going and that the autopsy report had not yet been released.
Lieutenant Colonel Federico Tutaan, commanding officer of the 19th Infantry Battalion, maintained there was an encounter between his men and a group of about ten rebels and it was just unfortunate that Co and his team were caught in the crossfire.
He said the area had long been identified as a “hotspot” and a “playground of the NPA.”
Tutaan said that last July 12, they overran an “enemy camp” six days after his men engaged some rebels in a firefight.
He said that last November 15, his men, numbering 38, went to Lim-ao on information that “so many NPA, four groups of NPA, were in the area.”
According to Tutaan, the armed group was in the area to “sabotage the operations” of the EDC.
Among those who went to Cortez’s wake were soldiers from 19th Infantry Battalion.
The first time the soldiers went to the wake on Tuesday night the people there were scared because the soldiers came in full battle gear, said Cortez’s daughter, Sheryl Ara Mae, 22.
Arsenia Cortez pursed her lips and made no comment when asked how she felt about the soldiers at her husband’s wake.
“They condoled with us and felt sorry about what happened to my husband. They stayed for hours just playing cards,” the Cortez widow said.
“They told us just to wait for the results of the investigation,” she said, referring to the officials of the EDC who promised her that they would be informed of the results of the investigation being conducted by the Kananga police.
Arsenia revealed that the last time she had a long talk with her husband, an EDC forest guard for 26 years, they talked about his plans for their 25th wedding anniversary celebration on Jan. 19, 2011.
“But now, he is gone,” she said, holding back her tears.
Inquirer Visayas
First Posted 17:19:00 11/20/2010
ORMOC CITY, Philippines – The families of the two farmers who were killed together with botanist Leonardo Co on November 15 in the forest of Kananga town want an impartial investigation to find out who were really responsible for their deaths.
Whether or not they were caught in the crossfire or were mistaken for rebels by soldiers, the truth has to come out so that the culprits can be brought to justice, said Teresita Borromeo, widow of farmer Julio Borromeo, 50.
“Whoever were responsible have to be punished. They killed my husband as if he was a pig. There was a big hole in his chest,” the 45-year-old widow said in an interview at her house in Tongonan, Ormoc, on Thursday.
Arsenia, the widow Sofronio Cortez, could not even look at her husband lying in a coffin at the wake held at their home in Barangay (village) Hilapnitan, Baybay, Leyte.
Arsenia said she still could not accept that her 50-year-old husband had died so senselessly.
“I am still confused as what happened to my husband and his group. I really don’t know. But we are seeking justice for his death. Up to now, I don’t have the strength to look at his body lying in the coffin,” the widow said in an interview at their house on Saturday.
Borromeo and Cortez will both be buried on Wednesday – Cortez at the Catholic cemetery in Baybay and Borromeo in Ormoc City.
Borromeo left six young children. Cortez had three children whose ages range from 16 to 23.
Teresita Borromeo said she could not believe that their six young children lost their father in such a manner.
“On that day, he left our house at around 6 in the morning. And by 7 p.m., I was expecting him to return. But it never happened,” she said.
Borromeo, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association, contractually hired by the Energy Development Corp. to plant trees, was assigned by EDC along with Cortez, an EDC forest guard, and two others to assist Co in documenting the tree specimens in the forest in Kananga adjoining the EDC-run Tongonan geothermal power plant.
Co and his team were in a forested area of Barangay Lim-ao and were exchanging jokes just minutes before they were fired upon, said one of the two survivors, Policarpio Balute, 33.
“During that time, we kept on cracking jokes to doc’s [Co] amusement. It was raining. Then suddenly, we heard a successive burst of gunfire. The doctor asked us all to lie down on the ground so we’ll not be hit,” said Balute, whom the Inquirer interviewed at the house of his sister in Barangay Tongonan on Thursday.
“He [Co] kept on shouting to stop the firing, repeatedly shouting, ‘Sir, please stop. Have mercy on us. We are not enemies.’ But they never stopped. The burst of gunfire was so deafening and in rapid succession as if it was like New Year,” Balute added.
Balute, however, would not say who Co referred to as “Sir.”
“I saw the doctor raising his both hands, crying, pleading for them to stop firing at us. But his pleadings were ignored by them as they kept on firing towards our direction,” said Balute.
Balute said he was able crawl away from the range of fire and ran so fast for over an hour until he reached the EDC office and reported the incident to the company’s chief security officer, whom he identified as “Sir Jojo Pascual.”
The other survivor, Niño Gibe, was inside their service vehicle parked some 90 meters away from the scene. He was left unharmed by men dressed in camouflage, Balute claimed.
Balute also said he had no idea if there were New People’s Army rebels in the area, as claimed by the 19th Infantry Battalion that claimed to have figured in a firefight with rebels that led to the death of Co, Borromeo and Cortez.
“But at that time, we were the only people there,” said Balute.
The bodies of Co, Cortez and Borromeo were retrieved hours later loaded on a truck owned by the EDC.
They were first taken to the Kananga police station, then to the Kananga Community Hospital and finally to the V. Rama Funeral Homes in Ormoc City.
Senior Inspector Joel Camacho, Kananga’s police chief, recalled that the bodies of the three victims were taken to the police station past 4 p.m., or more than four hours after the 12:15 p.m. shooting happened.
Camacho said he had no idea that one of the dead was a well-known figure.
Camacho declined to say who could be responsible for the death of the three, saying that an investigation was still on-going and that the autopsy report had not yet been released.
Lieutenant Colonel Federico Tutaan, commanding officer of the 19th Infantry Battalion, maintained there was an encounter between his men and a group of about ten rebels and it was just unfortunate that Co and his team were caught in the crossfire.
He said the area had long been identified as a “hotspot” and a “playground of the NPA.”
Tutaan said that last July 12, they overran an “enemy camp” six days after his men engaged some rebels in a firefight.
He said that last November 15, his men, numbering 38, went to Lim-ao on information that “so many NPA, four groups of NPA, were in the area.”
According to Tutaan, the armed group was in the area to “sabotage the operations” of the EDC.
Among those who went to Cortez’s wake were soldiers from 19th Infantry Battalion.
The first time the soldiers went to the wake on Tuesday night the people there were scared because the soldiers came in full battle gear, said Cortez’s daughter, Sheryl Ara Mae, 22.
Arsenia Cortez pursed her lips and made no comment when asked how she felt about the soldiers at her husband’s wake.
“They condoled with us and felt sorry about what happened to my husband. They stayed for hours just playing cards,” the Cortez widow said.
“They told us just to wait for the results of the investigation,” she said, referring to the officials of the EDC who promised her that they would be informed of the results of the investigation being conducted by the Kananga police.
Arsenia revealed that the last time she had a long talk with her husband, an EDC forest guard for 26 years, they talked about his plans for their 25th wedding anniversary celebration on Jan. 19, 2011.
“But now, he is gone,” she said, holding back her tears.
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