Dumagat training center to be built in Aurora ecozone

CASIGURAN, Aurora, Philippines  – A P3.5-million training center for Dumagat tribal folk will be constructed inside the Aurora Special Economic Zone.

It will be named Teming Moral Dumagat Training Center in honor of Moral, a Dumagat tribsesman who was allegedly gunned down on orders of illegal loggers in Sitio Dipontian, Barangay Cozo last Sept. 14.        

Sen. Edgardo Angara led the groundbreaking ceremony for the training center, one of three projects in support of the tribesmen, apart from a cultural center and a fishpond.

Moral, a forest guard, was having dinner with his wife Loida when shot dead by a lone gunman. He died on the scene while his wife was wounded. The murder remains unsolved.

Malcolm Sarmiento, Apeco president and chief executive officer, said Moral had been receiving death threats before he was killed.

He said Moral may have earned the ire of illegal, loggers after leading the confiscations of illegally sawn forest products, particularly in the San Ildefonso peninsula.