BUTUAN CITY – The regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) based here on Friday appealed to police authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the brutal and merciless killing of another forest officer in Agusan del Sur.

DENR-13 Regional Executive Director (RED) Hadja Didaw Piang-Brahim condemned the killing of Forest Ranger Marianito G. Rufano, saying the latter was only performing his duty to protect the forest in the area.

Piang-Brahim has asked authorities to go after those responsible for the killing of Rufano.

“They must be arrested and charged in court,” the region’s top
DENR 13 official said.

She said the local environment and natural resources office in the
province has been ordered to help in the police investigation.

In a flash report to Environment and Natural Resources Secretary
Roy A. Cimatu and DENR Undersecretary for Field Operations Enforcement, Mining and Muslim Affairs Jim O. Sampulna, Piang-Brahim said the victim was on the second round of hauling confiscated forest products with his team when they were flagged down by four armed men in Sitio Kiatsan, Barangay Bunawan Brook, Bunawan town, Agusan del Sur on Wednesday.

A day earlier, the team of the anti-illegal logging task force of the Bunawan Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENR) under CENR Officer Jerome Albia seized more than 5,000 board feet of illegally-cut lauan and other forest species in upper Bunawan Brook, particularly in Kiatsan area.

However, on Wednesday, when the team returned to haul the remaining illegally-cut forest products, four unidentified armed men, believed to be poachers, stopped Rufano while onboard his motorcycle, and stabbed him eight times, before he was shot to death.

The victim was believed confronting the four armed men on their
possible involvement in the timber poaching activity when suddenly attacked and stabbed by one of the men, a DENR report said.

“We still have the sketchy report on the incident as authorities are
still investigating in the area,” another DENR official here said.

Rufano’s team members were at a distance retrieving the illegally-cut lumber when the attack occurred, it also said.

“They were not able to react immediately. The suspects immediately fled after the incident,” DENR Regional Spokesperson Erik Gallego said.

Rufano was the second member of the DENR-13 Enforcement team
killed while on duty in Caraga region, DENR 13 record here said.

Last year, a member of the enforcement team of CENRO in Bislig
City, under CENR Officer Victor Sabornido, was also shot by motorcycle-riding in tandem.

Meanwhile, an alert order has been issued to all DENR operatives on the field to exercise extreme caution, and double their safety measures while in the exercise of their duties and functions in the field.