Cotabato launches inter-agency wildlife protection drive

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The provincial governor’s office in Cotabato, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources 12 and the police have fused ranks to jointly enforce wildlife protection measures in all towns in the province and in its capital, Kidapawan City.

Radio reports on Saturday, October 10, stated that representatives from the DENR-12, the Cotabato Provincial Police Office and planning and research experts under the office of Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza met on Wednesday in Kidapawan City and agreed then to cooperate in enforcing extensively in the province the Republic Act 9147, also known as the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001.

Their consensus was reached in less than two weeks after barangay officials and leaders of indigenous communities had reported the accidental electrocution of a wayward Philippine Eagle that hit a high-tension power cable dangling between two steel power posts in one of the barangays in Arakan, Cotabato.

Local executives had discovered that the eagle that died from electrocution had two pellet wounds, apparently shot first with a high-pressure air gun by a hunter in a forest nearby.

Farmers also found another Philippine Eagle with three pellet wounds in Magpet, Cotabato, now undergoing treatment at a veterinary clinic in Davao City.

Cotabato’s adjoining Arakan and Magpet towns are both so near the forested Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak, a state-protected sanctuary of endangered wildlife species, including the Philippine Eagle, smaller eagles and hawks, tarsiers and wild deer.

Ms. Taliño-Mendoza, who, as governor, is also chairperson of the Regional Development Council 12, said her office shall flex its authority in helping all units of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office and local executives in enforcing RA 9147 in areas under their jurisdiction to ensure the protection of wildlife in all forests in the province.

She also ordered the massive dissemination to the public of the penalties for violations of RA 9147, which include fines ranging from P10,000 to P1 million and imprisonment based on the extent of each offense.

Two ranking Army officials, Brig. Gen. Ricky P. Bunayog, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division based in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, and his counterpart in the 10th Infantry Division, Major Gen. Alvin V. Luzon, had separately assured Ms.Taliño-Mendoza of their support to her administration’s inter-agency and multi-sector wildlife protection program.

The 6th ID and the 10th ID, whose headquarters are in Mawab, Davao de Oro, both have units in different towns in Cotabato, one of the four provinces in Region 12.