Protection for Philippine eagle in Samar urged

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte – Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary for Field Operations Demetrio L. Ignacio, Jr. is making appeals to protect the national bird which thrives in Samar Island forests.

Ignacio was here recently on official business. In a talk with local media, he said that people in Samar “should help in the protection of the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyii), which is our national bird.”

He pointed out that the existence of the Philippine eagle in Samar is an indication of the rich biodiversity and the lushness of forests on the island.

The DENR official asked Samareños to play an active role in protecting the habitat of the Philippine eagle in Samar, which he stressed is “favorable not only for the existence of the national bird but also for other endemic and endangered species on the island as well.”

DENR-8 Regional Director Leonardo Sibbaluca has disclosed that the existence of the Philippine eagle in Samar forests has been reported since the early 1980s. Sightings of the bird in 1997 moved the hand of then President Joseph Estrada to declare, in Jan. 31, 1999, 3,720 hectares of Samar forest as Taft Forest Wildlife (Philippine Eagle) Sanctuary by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 155.

Sibbaluca also informed reporters that a team composed of representatives from the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) and the Institute of Biology of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, has sighted the Philippine Eagle last October 2014 in forest areas within Calbiga, Samar and Taft, Eastern Samar which are both inside the Samar Island Natural Park.

The Philippine eagle was first spotted in Paranas, Samar on June 15, 1896 by British naturalist John Whitehead.