In 2015, the DENR, in collaboration with the University of Philippines Diliman and the Philippine Eagle Foundation embarked on a program called reintroduction of the Philippine Eagle in Leyte, ensuring the survival of the King of the Birds.

This program commenced with a series of field expeditions which confirmed a sad reality of the birds’ absence in the forest of Burauen following Yolanda, as mentioned by General Hotchkiss. However, all was not lost, I think with the dedication of the DENR then, of course, and PEF, we started to think about a reintroduction program. And through the efforts of the UP Diliman Institute of Biology, there was a profiling study for DNA, which studied the Philippine Eagle subpopulations in Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao.

What the program confirmed is, genetically, these birds were homogenous. Therefore, that established the basis for our being able to design a reintroduction program into areas, which, of course, had suffered the loss of the species. As some of you may know, very recently, with the Philippine Eagle Foundation as well, and the DENR, there was a release of another eagle that was actually discovered in Apayao. So we’re very grateful for that discovery and for the work of the PEF in working with the LGU there as well, as well as the regional DENR office.

For a critically endangered species such as the Philippine Eagle, with only about three hundred and ninety-two (392) pairs remaining in the wild, every single individual counts. Our hope, therefore, is that Uswag and Carlito will actually bear offspring that will help us reintroduce this species sustainably here in this part of the country.

I also wish to say that we, in the DENR, are very grateful to Speaker Martin Romualdez. Principally, because this is the first time, in 2024 budget, that we obtained species-specific conservation funding. And the Philippine Eagle was among that species. When we first took this to Congress, it was Speaker Romualdez, who made sure that the funding was made available.

So this year, 2024, there is funding for conservation for the Philippine Eagle, the tamaraw, the marine turtles, as well as Palawan cockatoo, and the Dugong. So these were specifically funded under our 2024 budget. So we hope for your support as we go for more funding for additional species that are threatened as well.

Please join me as well and Dennis knows this, in congratulating the Philippine Eagle Foundation, its staff, and their partners such as the Mohammed Bin Zayed Foundation for their excellent work in reintroducing and caring for the captive eagles as well. Let’s carry out the spirit of conservation as well as resilience in terms of planning our future in light of the of complexity of climate change as it has already been mentioned.

General Hotchkiss, just for your for your information as well to share, in Yolanda, I was working with the Philippine Air Force in Mactan with General Deveraturda, in also the logistics systems that were supporting all the delivery of the aid to those affected.

So thank you very much po for all your work. I think that this must be a work of many hands. Hindi lang po ang DENR, hindi lang po ang private sector, di lang po ang foreign partners from Australia, and of course the UAE, but the community itself.

So one of the issues that we have learned from the study by the Philippine Eagle Foundation, is that the community needs a very strong foundation for sustainable livelihoods in this area.

Sa DENR po, we have biodiversity-friendly enterprise support. And so what we will be doing with our RED as I mentioned also to Sir from Tingog. We will be trying to design with you, Mayor, biodiversity friendly enterprise support which has seed funding for small enterprises for the community to actually engage in, in order to support the needs that we’ve already identified with the study conducted by PEF. It’s a very informative study and we understand that there are already impacts being felt by the community in terms of climate change apart from hardships that are related to the geography that is here. But certainly, we feel that there is a lot of hope. You have water which is one of the most priceless of natural assets. And so, with water there is life. We can actually work together to design those sustainable livelihoods for the community.

So thank you very much po for all this work and we look forward to a more fruitful partnership with the community and the private sector and the universities in the in the future.

Maraming salamat po.