DENR asks court to reconsider black shama “killing” decision

CEBU, Philippines - Hoping to prove in court that the killing of black shama birds even for a study is against the law, a motion for reconsideration was filed by the regional state environment agency on the dismissed case of endangered endemic birds dissected by student researchers.

The seven-page motion, submitted March 2, 2015 before the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7, argued that the research which involved dissection and death of eight black shama birds, also called siloy, is not justified.

“With due respect to the Honorable Prosecutor we beg that her resolution be considered based on the following grounds: there exists probable cause that a crime has been committed in violation of Section 27 (a) of Republic Act 9147 and the respondents impleaded herein are guilty thereof; The law violated is a special law in which criminal intent is immaterial; The research and experiment conducted is unauthorized making the killing of the endangered Black Sham birds unlawful,” the motion reads.

RA 9147 is commonly referred to as the Wildlife Protection and Conservation Act and DENR stressed that this law strictly prohibits killing of endangered birds.

“Based on the RA 9174 or the Wildlife Protection and Conservation Act: only two instruments that could give authorization on the use of wildlife species for research: a memorandum of agreement, and a special agreement in protected areas. The researchers don’t have these two instruments. Granting that the researchers have any of these permits, they still could not kill or inflict harm on the black shama,” said DENR 7 spokesperson Eddie Llamedo.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Threatened Species, black shama or copsychus cebuensis, which is endemic in Cebu, qualifies as endangered as it has a very small range and population, both of which are continuing to decline.

In addition, it suffers severe fragmentation owing to extreme pressure on the few remaining, already highly degraded, tracts of forest that still support subpopulation.

However, in 2004, work at Nug-as Forest in Alcoy, the largest remaining tract of mature secondary forest (700 hectares), discovered a much larger population, with 85 black shama birds sighted across seven kilometers of transects. Extrapolations based on these sightings suggest that up to 2,500 of the birds could be present at Nug-as.

The college thesis by then biology students of Cebu Normal University was entitled “Gut Content Composition of Cebu Black Shama,” which was revised from its original “Diet and Preference of Cebu Black Shama in Cebu Island.”

The students have graduated March 2014. —(FREEMAN)