Postmortem evidence

“Slaughter of the Birds” (Inquirer - Dec 13, 2007) sparked heated reactions. Here are some condensed comments, sparked by the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines ' drive to get 10,000 signatures, on an online petition, to implement the moribund wildlife law (RA 9147).

“Hunters were incensed and started to harass the original petitioner Josef Sagemuller,” emailed the Bird Club's Michael Lu. “They've left messages, in the petition site” telling Mr Sagemuller: we know where you're from and your background. “They insinuated (he) seeks financial rewards from funding agencies…” for this petition.

“I don't know how this will end. But they must realize they've broken the law… We've e-mailed Senators Pia Cayetano, Loren Legarda and Miguel Zubiri, Bacolod local government and environment office. If nothing happens, it's up to NGOs to continue this fight”.

In Palawan , John Patrick Matta heads Coron Municipal Council's environment committee. He describes himself as a “responsible hunter” – who are “not like the rest of men”. Conservationists know nothing about nature. He writes:

“Responsible hunters… do not shoot what we do not intend to eat.” We have strict rules and can discipline ourselves. “Each hunter through time matures and metamorphosis's (sic) into a conservationist like no other… Only a few of you conservationists have crawled on the earth that you defend…”

“My father instilled great responsibility” with an airgun gift on his 8th birthday – “to commune with nature”. As a high school kid he hunted at the UP Arboretum, and Fairview , La Mesa Dam.

Today, “once beautiful forested hillsides have been bulldozed…Nothing pains the pure blooded hunter more, to see the destruction of our quarries' habitat…Why not direct your gun sights at groups responsible for the wide scale destruction of habitats” like big time real estate developers.

“We are with you in the conservation of natural habitat... Here in Palawan our family owns a 21-hectare piece of property that we intend to keep as a bird sanctuary and nature reserve….Be fair. We are not a bunch of gung-ho and reckless killers that you so readily labeled us to be.”

Responsible hunters are a minority, says Philippine News Agency's Eddie Barrita. “Some Cebu officials hunt in Bohol and other places. And some journalists tag along. They don't bother with licenses. On return, they flaunt their “trophies”, usually of endangered species.

“Growing up in Cabadjiangan, I remember wild birds perched on towering trees,” Barrita adds. But we deforested the place. People, pollution and unchecked hunting decimated the birds. We'll never hear some of them sing again.”

A University of the Philippines Los Baños veterinarian, Gerardo Estrera, emailed: On receiving the email petition, “I studied the issues”. He surfed bird websites, mainly in geocities and concluded:

“The request for signatures played on the emotions of people, without really dealing with the facts…(Viewpoint) column makes me think that people passed judgment without studying the issues. Shouldn't we be more responsible in passing out such judgments?”

The towering UPLB chancellor and National Scientist Dioscoro Umali wrote in 1992: “Estimates are half of our endemic flora, with their irreplaceable genetic building blocks, is now gone. The same is true of our wildlife. The actual figure is probably higher.”

Since then, scientists fleshed out the “Dean's” view. These include, among others: World, and Asian Development Bank studies, Birdlife International Red Data Book, Chicago Field Museum studies, UN's State of Environment in Asia and the Pacific.

Ignorance of the hard data, at this late stage, is pathetic. “Demand for more ‘facts' seeks the evidence of a post mortem,” Financial Times notes. Thus, Mar Patalinjug emailed from New York : “We Filipinos can be stupid! But what's worse are stupid predators. Can they not see our country's once-diverse fauna and flora vanishing? Soon, vast parts of this country will be deserts like Death Valley .”

Fish ignore lines drawn on EEZ (exclusive economic zones) maps. Birds fly over private land or public domain. “I have never been aware of a right to shoot birds in private property,” Yeb Sano said in an email. “This is nonsense.”

This was reaction to Gino Castabdielo who designed the controversial Bacolod Air Rifle hunting club's website (now hustled down) “The group picture of hunters, with their total catch of the day, was taken inside a private property,” he wrote: We were invited by the land owner.”

We don't hunt “endangered species like the Flame Templed Babbler and the Negros Bleeding Heart, he said. Nor do we hunt in places like Kanla-on National Park, Patag Rain Forest …or bird sanctuaries. Precisely, there's a quarry or game birds site”.

“There are some bad eggs in (our) basket…like everybody else. I've talked to some conservationist kuno. They talked but no action. I teach my children to love nature… My son is going to be a good hunter --- just like me.”

But “where is the soaring eagle circling above the land?” the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines asked in a 1990 pastoral. “All we might leave behind is a barren land.” Seventeen years later, answers to this anguished question have been refrigerated pending – what? A postmortem?*

back to top