Lt. Col. Pendatun Guro, spokesman of the Army’s 401st Infantry Brigade, said the military is giving way to ongoing negotiations led by Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos for the release of Christopher Kuizon, 56, the DENR’s regional director for forest management.
In a meeting the other day, local leaders and representatives of lumads (tribal uplanders) agreed to solve Kuizon’s abduction through peaceful means.
Kuizon was seized by members of the Bongkatol Liberation Army, an armed unit of the lumads’ Kilusang Nagkahiusang Minoriya, from his house in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte.
"We will surely go after the kidnappers upon the PNP’s request when the demands are already unreasonable," said Col. Rogelio Rosete, 401st IB commanding officer.
In exchange for Kuizon’s release, lumads have demanded an equal chance to engage in community-based forest management agreement (CBFMA) programs with the DENR which they complain has given special treatment to big logging companies.
They also urged the government to investigate alleged incursion of water supply companies into their ancestral land and the alleged land-grabbing by CBFMA implementors in connivance with local government officials.