By Joey A. Gabieta, Elvie Roa, Inquirer Visayas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:12:00 11/18/2010
ORMOC CITY—Leonardo Co, one of the country’s foremost botanists and biodiversity experts, and two of his companions might have been mistaken for communist rebels when they were shot and killed in a forested area in Kananga, Leyte, on Monday, according to a survivor.
Policarpio Balute, 33, a farmer who served as one of Co’s two guides, said the shooting started in Upper Mahiao, Barangay Lim-ao, but added that he did not hear any responding volley of gunfire from any direction that could indicate an on-going battle between Army soldiers and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
Military officers have said that Co, a consultant of Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. (EDC), company forest guard Sofronio G. Cortez, and Co’s other guide, Julius Borromeo, died in a crossfire during the encounter, according to the military.
The scientist was collecting seedling specimens for an EDC project with a five-member team when the shooting took place. His body arrived on Tuesday night at Funeraria Paz on Araneta Avenue, Quezon City.
Co was also considered the best plant taxonomist in the country and had pushed for forest conservation and restoration using native tree and plant species. The Rafflesia leonardi, an endemic parasitic plant species and one of the biggest flowers in the Philippines, was named after him.
“I only heard a continued burst of gunfire. There was no answering gunfire. None. That was what I heard, about 15 minutes of gunfire,” Balute, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association (Tofa) told reporters on Tuesday.
The other survivor, Roniño Gibe, a contractual forester with EDC’s corporate responsibility department, was suffering from shock and was admitted to the hospital of the Ormoc Sugarcane Planters Association.
Family doubts
In Quezon City, Co’s family also expressed doubts that he had died in a crossfire or that a clash between soldiers and rebels had taken place. His wife, Glenda, said that based on the death certificate, he died from three bullet wounds in the back.
“We have serious doubts on the military statement that there was an encounter, and if ever there was, it was irresponsible of them to engage in a firefight, knowing there were civilians in the area,” said Darwin Flores, Co’s brother-in-law and the family spokesperson.
“We want a thorough investigation report on what really happened because we observed inconsistencies in the military’s statement,” Flores said.
Armed Forces Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Reynaldo Mapagu promised an impartial probe.
“We will investigate if we had lapses,” he said on Wednesday during the welcome ceremony for the peacekeeping forces from Golan Heights.
“If the involved troops had any responsibility, then so be it. We will do the right thing or the necessary measures so that we can address the problem,” Mapagu said.
Military confidence
But the highest ranking military officer in the Visayas said “we are quite confident that it was not our soldiers” who shot Co and his research team.
“I cannot say as of now [who hit the victims], but based on what our soldiers have said, it’s very difficult [to conceive] that they were the ones who hit the civilians,” Lt. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, chief of the military’s Central Command (Centcom), said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
Balute said he dropped to the ground upon hearing the gunfire and after several minutes he ran away from the area, calling on his companions to do the same. He said he even tumbled down a hilly portion.
He said he ran and barely caught up with an EDC service vehicle that was about to drive away with its driver who got scared of the gunfire.
Lt. Col. Federico Tutaan, commanding officer of the 19th Infantry Battalion, dismissed reports that there was no actual encounter and that Co and his companions were mistaken to be part of an NPA group. He said the soldiers were unaware that there were civilians in the area.
Unfair to judge
In a press conference in Tacloban City on Wednesday, Tutaan denied as having said that the military fired the first shot.
He said it would be unfair at this time to judge his men and put the blame on them as the autopsy conducted by a medical team coming from the Philippine National Police had yet to come out.
“They (soldiers) are being blamed (over the death of the three civilians). My men were not trained to kill civilians. I plead to please believe my men,” he said in a press conference here on Tuesday.
Before the shooting started, Tutaan said, the soldiers saw a person wearing black and holding an M-16 rifle, prompting them to assume a combat formation to cover more ground. He said one of the soldiers was confident that he hit one of the suspected rebels.
“There was a volume of fire. The bullets ricocheted to different directions,” he said.
Tutaan added that as early as Nov. 12, the soldiers received an intelligence report that NPA members were planning to attack the EDC complex so they were on “heightened alert and always on a combat mode.”
Survivor’s account
Co’s wife, Glenda, said she had talked to Gibe, one of the survivors, who narrated what happened. She said she was told that Co was still alive but wounded after the first gunshots were heard.
“He said that when my husband tried to get up from the ground, another burst of gunfire hit him in the back,” she said.
She said Gibe survived because he hid behind a huge tree.
“After the second volley of gunfire, Niño (Gibe) said he held up his hand as sign of surrender and shouted, ‘Tama na, tama na’ (Stop it), and the gunfire suddenly stopped,” the wife said.
She said that EDC people arrived immediately after the shooting and brought her husband to a hospital.
Independent probe
Flores, the family spokesperson, said Manila-based employees of EDC denied a military statement that it was the company who informed them of the NPA presence in the area.
Environmentalists on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the “tragic death” of Co and his companions even as they held the Army and the Lopez-owned EDC responsible for failing to secure their safety.
Their deaths brought to 36 the number of environmentalists killed in the country since 2001, according to the Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment. It charged that soldiers and militiamen were behind most of the killings.
In a statement, the group demanded a “thorough and independent” investigation of the Leyte incident, “especially since it involves powerful corporations, as well as the military.”
The group said the Army “apparently did not conduct desired protocols to validate and secure the presence of civilians in the area, especially since the environmental research team was said to have gotten clearance from the military to conduct a research.”
Two senators mourned the death of Co as a big blow to the Philippines as a source of herbal medicine by local and international pharmaceutical corporations.
‘People’s scientist’
Sen. Edgardo Angara said he was saddened to know that even scientists were getting caught in the crossfire between the military and rebels, especially since they were mostly deployed in highly forested areas without any security or protection.
Co’s death could have a chilling effect on the scientific community which could set back research by local and foreign scientists on Philippine medicinal plants, he said.
In a statement, Sen. Pia Cayetano described Co as a “people’s scientist” and his death as a big loss to the communities.
“He has brought invaluable help to our people in developing their knowledge and skill in traditional herbal medicines,” she said.
Cayetano, who chairs the Senate committee on health and demography, called for an investigation to determine if the bullets that killed Co and his companions came from the military or the rebels in order to erase suspicions of foul play.
She said the government should further tighten its security for scientists and foresters in high-risk areas as more civilians were getting caught in the crossfire or state of lawlessness in remote areas of the country.
Co’s body will be transferred on Saturday to the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City, where a tribute will be held. The time of transfer and exact venue for the burial were still being finalized.
Cremation will be on Sunday, at 9 a.m.
A Facebook page “Leonardo L. Co: In Memoriam” was created Wednesday to honor him. With reports from Nancy Carvajal, Leila B. Salaverria, Dona Z. Pazzibugan and Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
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