BAGUIO CITY – Possibly, a Philippine hawk eagle was turned over to the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office-Department of Environment and Natural Resources (CENRO-DENR) through the city government of Baguio.
Eleno Lao-ing with children Roldan and Grace Lao-ing personally went to the office of mayor Mauricio Domogan, Monday, April 10 to report that they found an eagle along Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya.
Eleno narrated, his family attended a burial at Tabuk, Kalinga. On their way home going back to Baguio, it was very foggy along Kapaya, Nueva Vizcaya in the night of April 7, Friday when suddenly the headlight of their vehicle bumped to what they thought was a stone.
However, when Roldan went out of the vehicle to check the headlight, he was surprised to see an eagle lying on the street.
It was a struggle on the part of Roldan to get the said eagle in order to check his condition.
Considering that it was a weekend and aware that it is prohibited to keep endangered species, the Lao-ing family took the responsibility to take good care of the eagle and fed the same with chicken’s intestines and waited for Monday to report the incident to the office of mayor Mauricio Domogan.
In the presence of the Lao-ing family, executive assistant Rafael Tallocoy turned over the eagle to ecosystem management specialist Northemia Jarligao of CENRO-DENR.
Jarligao expressed her gratitude to the Lao-ing family for their concern to the eagle and for turning-over the same.
She stressed that the eagle will undergo series of medical evaluation and assessment before the same will be release to its habitat.
“The Philippine eagle is protected by Philippine laws. Hunting, collecting, and trading Philippine eagle is punishable by fine and imprisonment,” added Jarligao.
It has been reported that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed the Philippine eagle on their list of critically endangered species on 2008. Hence, they are calling the efforts of the Philippine government and the Filipino people to conserve the eagle because it is nearing extinction. /Jho Arranz#
