Endangering the endangered Philippine Eagle

Based on newspaper accounts, 10 of the 15 Philippine Eagles so far released by the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) under its dispersal program have been confirmed or presumed dead with at least five of them shot with guns. The near certainty that the 10 precious eagles would still be alive today had they not been released does not cross the minds of the decision-makers in the PEF because they are obsessed by their belief that the best place for the birds is still in their natural habitat with little thought if the proper conditions exists or not.

Fending off criticisms over the shooting to death of “Pamana” in August 2015, PEF director for research and conservation Jayson Ibañez had denied the observation that Filipinos generally treat wild animals as food or something to be sold for quick money. So enamoured with the sight of eagles in their natural habitats, he wanted everyone to believe in the PEF myth that Filipinos have nothing to do with the inclusion of more than 40 species in the country in the critically endangered list. He and his colleagues in the PEF could not even see that the very existence of the PEF itself is a clear evidence of the predatory streak of Filipinos because why the need a special program to protect and conserve the Philippine Eagle if residents do not pose any danger to them?

Citing the alleged case of an eagle they released in 1999 which bred thrice in the wilds already, Ibañez claimed that keeping eagles in captivity would result to waste of reproductive potential. What he did not mention was that as of 2016, 27 eaglets were already born in captivity at the Philippine Eagle Center (PEC) in Malagos, Davao City. And fast forward, Ibañez just announced last month that seven pairs in their care are manifesting “signs of courtship rituals” (“7 Philippine eagle pairs show signs of breeding,” Manila Bulletin, June 13, 2019). Needless to say, had the 10 that died in the wilds not been released, there would be more potential breeders.

Ibañez and the entire PEF block from their minds the reality that dead eagles could not breed such that even with the 10 eagles already sacrificed to their dispersal program, they are intending to return “Maslog E. S.”, the eagle recovered from a chicken trap in barangay Carayacay, Maslog, Eastern Samar on June 17, 2019, to the Maslog forest when it is ready (“Phl eagle rescued from chicken trap in Eastern Samar forest,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 10, 2019). How the PEF could declare the area safe for eagles is a failure of common sense considering the fact that the bird was trapped there.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is not smarter than the PEF in this respect. The agency released Philippine Eagle “Agawid” to the Aurora Memorial National Park (AMNP) in Aurora on Oct. 4, 2017 and it was there where the bird was recovered from a monkey snare more than a year earlier! (“2 Philippine Eagles flown to Singapore sanctuary,” Philippine STAR, June 5, 2019) Have the people living in the vicinity of the AMNP foresworn their practice of hunting wildlife since “Agawid” was caught? The DENR people may point out that the bird has been in the park for two years unharmed little realizing that the bird was approximately three years old when trapped, meaning it stayed in the forest longer than the two years after its release before disaster struck.

The fact that only last month, the agreement between the PEF and the Wildlife Reserves Singapore for the loaning of eagles to the latter has been consummated resulting to the delivery of a male and female pair of Philippine Eagles to Jurong Bird Park in Singapore last month (“2 Philippine eagles fly to Singapore,” Business Mirror, June 5). This is a safe and sane way of conserving the endangered species and at the same time insures the survival the species against any natural calamity that might wipe out the captive eagle population in the PEC. The park which is known to have successfully bred other endangered bird species will also try to breed the birds. Recently, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu also informed that a similar arrangement is being discussed with an American wildlife conservation entity.

The PEF and DENR should immediately stop eagle dispersal program until such time there are forests in the country declared safe for the birds by objective, competent and responsible authorities if ever such an occasion will come. The corporate sponsors of the eagles in the care of the PEF should also make it a condition that the bird not be released in any open space in the country until warranted. Until then, all recovered and bred Philippine Eagles should be kept at the PEC or loaned to foreign conservation entities because the reckless loss of the 10 is more than enough to prove that ironically, the PEF dispersal program is doing more harm than good to the efforts to preserve the critically endangered species and is tantamount to an act of sabotage. — Estanislao Albano Jr., [email protected]