CONGRATULATIONS to Senior Supt. William C. Señoron, the newly-appointed head of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Noppo).
I knew William when he headed the Task Force Ilahas (TFI) to go after illegal loggers in Negros Occidental.
Back then, I managed a community forestry project in Barangay Bagong Silang, Salvador Benedicto town, then an illegal logging hotspot. My organization, the Broad Initiatives for Negros Development (Bind), assisted upland farmers to develop non-timber forest products such as wild honey and rattan.
In exchange, the community-based organization organized forest guards in their designated area, keeping a close watch on timber poachers. Bind provided cellphones and prepaid cards to local leaders to coordinate with us on real-time. We also taught them the news writing basics of the Five Ws and one H whenever the cellphone user texted me.
Since I spent half of my time in the field and in Bacolod, I liaised with TFI, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office, and the Provincial Environment Management Office. I got the cellphone numbers of their heads so I can forward to them field information from the community leaders.
Sometime in late July 2003, I got text messages from our field staff and the leaders informing us of timber poaching. I forwarded their messages with some annotation to the responsible law enforcement agencies. It was hard to get in touch with TFI because it seems it was all over the place.
In fact, William responded that the TFI couldn’t go as yet to Salvador Benedicto because he was still tied up in Hinobaan on a similar case. But he promised that they will hurry back to Bacolod and forthwith investigate the incident in Bagong Silang.
Unfortunately, TFI got bogged down when there was a nationwide back-to-barracks order when the Oakwood Mutiny flared up in Makati. They were able to go to Bagong Silang after the military and police authorities gave the all-clear signal to resume normal operations.
The poachers were also winding down their illegal activities when TFI pounced on them that led to several arrests. The news made it to the front pages of local dailies. Few reporters, however, were unaware of the back story that made these apprehensions possible.
I recounted this story to several international publications on forestry conservation when local and national governments, law enforcement agencies, civil society, telecommunication companies, and community leaders form a tight tie-up for mountain forest conservation. Nothing is as strong as all of us together.
Since then, I held a high regard for William and the TFI group. I viewed them as professional and courageous green warriors who can be depended on to defend God’s creation especially in the mountains.
I’m looking forward to a green Noppo and closer cooperation with civil society under the watch of William.
*****
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)