Pinagawa Slain Over Land Dispute: Police

Pinagawa Slain Over Land Dispute: Police
By LITO RULONA - Correspondent Updated January 14, 2010 12:00 AM
http://www.goldstardailynews.com/content.php?id=8930


TRIBAL leader and environmental activist Alberto Pinagawa was killed due to a land dispute among Higaonons and not because of his anti-logging advocacy, the former police director of Misamis Oriental has claimed.
Speaking before the provincial board on Monday, Senior Supt. Alberto Patrimonio revealed that Pinagawa was murdered by people he considered as family friends.
Pinagawa’s murder in Sitio Papataon, Barangay Eureka last Dec. 24 fanned aflame the advocacy against logging operations in Misamis Oriental, particularly in Gingoog city where the victim had fought a firm called Southwood Timber Corp. 
The firm holds an industrial forest management agreement (Ifma) which serves as Southwood’s permit to cut trees on an area being claimed as a Higaonon ancestral land in eastern Misamis Oriental.
Patrimonio’s disclosure came after provincial board member Wayne Militante started an official inquiry into the Dec. 24 murder.
‘‘The motive behind the killing is land dispute,’’ Patrimonio said.
Patrimonio served as police director of Misamis Oriental until last weekend when Camp Crame reshuffled local police chiefs because of the May elections.
Patrimonio did not identify any suspect but he said they were supposedly close family friends of Pinagawa.
“Mura ba og kanang ga-ingnon nga pareha kita og pagtuo, pareha kita og ginikanan. Kita managsoun pero lahi atong bulsa,” he told the provincial board.
Patrimonio said police were still digging deeper in the hope of making arrests soon.
The 54-year old  Pinagawa was killed by at least two to three suspects day before Christmas, according to an initial police report.
The victim had claimed ownership of a four-hectare property right in the middle of a logging area that stretches from Misamis Oriental to Agusan del Norte, police said.
Pinagawa was also  a leader of the Minalwang Higaonon Tribal Council that has been claiming ancestral domain over eight thousand areas within a former logging concession of a company called Anakan