‘I never handled illegal logging cases in Quirino’

I wish to reply to Ramon Tulfo’s Jan. 5 column which alleged that I dismissed all illegal logging cases filed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Quirino province. The column also suggested that I should be investigated for this, thus implicitly attributing some wrongdoing on my part.

I wish to make it clear that I never handled any illegal logging cases in the province of Quirino. All cases involving any violation of forest laws in Quirino are handled by the Quirino provincial prosecution office, which is headed by prosecutor German de los Santos. No illegal logging cases from Quirino ever reached my office, and I have never dismissed any illegal logging case.

I plead, on bended knees, with Tulfo: Take another look at the information fed to you so you can rectify your mistakes. I don’t intend to take a legal action against you or to physically harm you just like what your enemies have done before. Instead I plead for your sense of righteousness, so that you would spare my young family from eternal ignominy and do what is proper to set the record straight.

—ROMMEL C. BALIGOD,

regional prosecutor,

Office of the Regional Prosecutor,

Tuguegarao City, Region 2,

[email protected]