Students bat for RP eagle as national bird

Fifty-five leading students from six high schools in Mandaluyong City, Pasig City, and Cainta, Rizal have pledged support for the change of the national bird from Maya to Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) and a 10-year total logging ban.

This was agreed upon during the First Clash of the Geo-Explorers Inter-School Competition (elimination round) on animals and the environment, which was held at Megatrade Hall 2, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City. The event – which was organized by Mapanglikhang Pinoy Learning System and supported by Power Memory – aims to develop national awareness on environmental conservation.

The 10 finalists are: Eunice Phoebe D. Ibale, Eliazer Johannan Santos, and Trissia M. Sambalilo, AE. Montessori; Daisy Chagas, Ana Catrina Quiambaw, and Carlo Ocampo, Cainta Catholic College; Kashmir Engrada, Marlon Vincent Daro and Jeremy Vicencio, City of Mandaluyong Science High School; and Sir Moses F. Naluz, Rizal High School. The other participating schools were Faith Christian School and Mandaluyong High School.

Meanwhile, radio-TV director and contest judge Gil Soriano says, "The Philippine Eagle is a symbol of power, agility, long-range vision, and the insistent will to survive; the same remarkable qualities that the Filipino possesses. This is in sharp contrast with the current national bird, the Maya… We will lobby in Congress for the change."

On the proposed 10-year total logging ban, Lino C. Soriano, of the MPLS says, "more than 7,000 innocent souls were lost in the 1991 Ormoc tragedy, 19 died in the 1999 Cherry Hill tragedy, while 146 were buried alive in the 2,000 Payatas tragedy. And recently, in a matter of minutes, thousands were buried alive and hundreds of millions of worth of crops and property were swept away by rampaging flash floods and buried in gigantic landslides in Real, Infanta and Gen. Nakar, Quezon. If we will not stop cutting trees now, where will the next tragedy be? They should start ordering more cadaver bags ASAP!"