Task Force Save Pulangi leader shot dead
The leader of Task Force Save Pulangi has been shot dead.
According to a media release from environmental group Kalikasan – People’s Network for the Environment (PNE), Task Force Save Pulangi leader Margarito Cabal was killed by a still unidentified gunman last Wednesday.
The environmental activist was killed last Wednesday in Barangay Palma, Municipality of Kibawe, Bukidnon.
Cabal reportedly campaigned against the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Pulangi River.
Kalikasan officials say that Cabal is the 13th environmental activist killed under the administration of Philippine President Noynoy Aquino.
Nine of the 13 cases of killing of environmental activists under Aquino occurred in Mindanao.
According to Kalikasan:
“Impunity towards ecologists is growing by leaps and bounds in Mindanao, presumably because of the torrent of destructive mining and energy projects in the region. Government policies on protecting foreign investments and engaging in counter-insurgency are overlapping exactly because both are meant to undermine oppositions to these dirty projects.”
In 2010, Bukidnon Online reported about the proposed hydropower plant that’s set to be erected at Pulangui River.
