The 15th of November marks the 15th anniversary of the murder of Leonard Legaspi 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, which will provide free public download of around two thousand new and rescued images documented from Leonard’s field work, downloaded to a hard drive just months before his horrific death.

Leonard L. Co, the People’s Botanist

Leonard Co’s passion for botany began at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he initially enrolled in Chemical Engineering to meet his father’s wishes. However, driven by his own calling, he shifted to Botany. Co’s academic path was unique as he delayed completing his bachelor’s degree until 2008 due to his extensive fieldwork. Instead of a traditional thesis, he presented a pioneering book on Cordilleran medicinal plants, which earned him a Bachelor of Science in Botany as the only UP student to do so without a conventional thesis.

Co’s tragic death in November 2010 was “equated to the loss of a national treasure.” HIs contributions are immeasurable. He founded the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society Inc., and documented many plant species, including 𝙑𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙪𝙢 𝙤𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙯𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙪𝙢 and 𝙓𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙪𝙨. Several endemic species have been named in his honour, such as 𝘼𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖 𝙡𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙤𝙞, 𝙂𝙖𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙞, 𝙈𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙖, 𝙈𝙮𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙡𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞, and 𝙍𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙖 𝙡𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞.”

(From the Philippine Taxonomic Initiative)

The Leonard Co memorial in Quezon City

Have you visited the Leonard Co, Bayani Ko memorial lately? It’s inside the publicly accessible Herbarium managed by the Institute of Biology in UP Diliman. It’s a wonderful place of calm, surrounded by so much native trees, orchids, gingers, understorey plants, insects, birdsong.

You’ll find the memorial to the People’s Botanist when you click on the pin, right by what is known as the Scholar’s Tree, locally known called Dita (Alstonia scholaris). A third of Leonard Co’s ashes were laid to rest in the spot.

We consider the Herbarium one of our people’s many houses of memory, a fitting description considering the work of Leonard Co, himself a world-renowned keeper of memory, tragically killed 15 years ago by the military during a native plants survey in Kananga, Leyte. Justice continues to be elusive, but we will not allow Leonard Co’s life and legacy to be forgotten.

Click here to see Leonard alongside the food scientist Maria Orosa and the orchidologist Eduardo Quisimbing as depicted in two story-tall mural we commissioned for public display at the Sta. Mesa campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

Donate to the Leonard Co legal fund

Please give! It really matters! 15 years of elusive justice has emptied the resources of Leonard Co’s family: Glenda, his wife, and Linnaea, his cherished daughter. That the trial is held in Leyte means expenses are considerable, covering roundtrip flights for the family and the lawyer, on top of legal expenses and lawyers’ fees.

Consider purchasing t-shirts via messaging the Facebook page of UPB Native Plants Committee, they’re not only lovely but they also help raise funds desperately needed to ensure Glenda and Linnaea Co are able to seek justice for the death of Leonard.

The Constantino Foundation’s involvement in the Justice for Leonard Co campaign

Leonard Co’s life and legacy help define what nationalism truly is, not merely in terms of narrow territorial, geographic nation-state formalities but as a living aspiration of a country where Filipinos thrive with the natural world while ensuring future generations of Filipinos enjoy lives of peace, happiness and prosperity based on the abundance of their land and an awareness of their people’s history and the way it is intertwined with the geologic past—and future–of our land.