“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

This old riddle, according to Ronald Achacoso, head of the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, has become a fitting frame for a loss that still reverberates through Philippine science.

Fifteen years after botanist Leonard Co was killed by government troops while conducting fieldwork in Leyte, the question lands with a sharper weight.

His death—described by authorities as a case of soldiers mistaking him and his two companions for rebels—was followed by years of quiet and slow-moving justice, the kind of silence that dissipates the way an echo disappears into the canopy.

Leonard, forest guard Sofronio Cortez, and guide Julius Borromeo may have seemed to have died in vain. But a decade and a half later, their death in the forest may yet save us from an avoidable death before floods completely overrun our mountains [READ]

Quezon City, 15 November – Botanists and advocates gathered today at the Institute of Biology in UP Diliman to mark the 15th year since the murder of the world-renowned ethnobotanist Leonard Legaspi Co. Justice continues to elude the family after Co was gunned down with forest guard Sofronio Cortez, and guide Julius Borromeo, by soldiers of the 19th Infantry Battalion of the AFP in Kananga, Leyte. The botanist and his colleagues were conducting a survey of tree species for a forest restoration project of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) when the soldiers mercilessly fired 245 rounds at the botanical team.

“As Justice continues to elude the family of the People’s Botanist, the Constantino Foundation’s is determined to ensure Leonard Co’s life and legacy is even more known across the archipelago. Leonard defines what nationalism truly is, not merely in terms of [READ]

Commemorating 15 years of Elusive Justice, Celebrating the Life of the People’s Botanist

Organized by the Justice for Leonard Co Movement, Institute of Biology-UP Diliman, Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society, Inc., Green Convergence, and the Constantino Foundation

The 15th of November marks the 15th anniversary of the murder of Leonard Co, known as the People’s Botanist. The occasion will be marked with several activities and announcements at the Institute of Biology in UP Diliman, concluding with a 1:00-3:00 PM press event that will provide a legal update on the case. Just as compelling will be the release during the event of a huge number of new and rescued images documented from Leonard’s field work, downloaded to a hard drive just before his horrific death. The images, rescued from a data storage unit thought to have been lost to rust [READ]