More support, more security, more firepower

The killing of a Sanchez Mira, Cagayan Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional officer captured by a CCTV camera highlights the perils that come with the job. A stranger casually walks into the building, scopes the area and identifies the location of his intended target. He then exits, probably to psych himself for the murder, then come back storming into the office of forestry specialist Melania Dirain and fires, in all probability, fatally wounding her. A janitor who happened to be inside the office rushes the gunman to grab his weapon. But the killer fends him off and runs. But being a professional hitman, he goes back into the office and shoots the victim several times, as if making sure he got her. He then escapes.

There were so many things wrong when I saw this video. First, the building, or the structure, was easily accessible to anyone! Second, there was no security guard to screen visitors or strangers, not even a front desk manned by some personnel. This is probably because this is only a regional office, and not the main office. Coupled with the fact that it is in a remote part of the country. Third, the office of the official was so close and accessible from the front door! In my experience, the higher you are in any organization or corporation, even government, the harder it is to access your office! Again, this is just in some small Cagayan town, so why follow traditional set-ups? Forget the guard, forget the reception area, forget the location of the regional head. Well, the video answers all that. The killer walks in, shoots, gets out. It may not have been that smooth, thanks to the janitor, but the victim was still murdered.

Illegal logging is the angle by which investigators are urged to look into by DENR Regional Director Benjamin Tumaliuan. What else could it be? Why there is no security in such a sensitive and high-risk office just baffles me. Is it any wonder why some, if not most DENR officials just “play along” with these illegal loggers, precisely because of what happened to Dirain? I mean, you’re in remote part of the country, in a place the technically is not your territory, where chances are there is a strongman, a warlord, a druglord or an illegal logger or miner, how are you expected to go against these mobsters and enforce the laws of the land without some form of security or back-up? You’re not even sure if the local government supports you? And yet it took a woman, who has been there for only a month, to shake things up in the area and come up with three sensitive cases already. Most employees and officials have been in the DENR for decades and yet they have accomplished nothing!

We need more Melania Dirains in government. Those who can and will deliver results in a month, or even less. But government has to provide these crusaders with protection. If government is really serious about stopping all illegal logging and whatever crimes in the provinces, it has to put more people like Melania Dirain and more firepower behind her. Not in makeshift structures with no security at all. They are already in the right track by installing the CCTVs. But cameras and videos cannot stop a determined criminal. You need a body to do that. An armed one, if possible.