Finance chief worried about bird flu’s impact on endangered PHL eagle

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Tuesday expressed concern about the impact of avian influenza on the endangered Philippine eagle as he downplayed the disease's potential economic impact.

At a forum in Manila, Dominguez said that recent bird flu outbreak in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija is "not a concern" for the government's economic team.

"I don't think it's a concern. You know what really my concern is with the bird flu? It’s the Philippine eagle. I'm telling you, if the bird flu goes there, we may have to kill all the eagles," he said.

Last week, the Department of Agriculture banned the shipment of poultry and poultry products from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao after the avian influenza outbreak in San Luis, Pampanga.

"This bird flu... some chicken growers are not going to be too happy, but effect on the production is rather small," Dominguez said.

So far, the Department of Agriculture has not announced an outbreak of the disease outside Luzon.

Davao City in Mindanao is home to a sanctuary that breeds and rehabilitates the endangered Philippine national bird.

"I used to be chairman of Philippine Eagle Foundation and we have been working with the government, for five years, to place outside the country at least two pairs so that if anything happens here we are safe. We still have the genetic material of the Philippine eagle," Dominguez said.

"One place we are putting it is in San Diego zoo, the other one we haven't determined yet," he added.

The Philippine Eagle Foundation earlier estimated there are about 800 of the Philippines' national bird remaining in the wild, though it is impossible to count accurately due to their remote habitats.

International conservation groups said there could be as few as 250 left.

In more than three decades of trial and error experiments by the foundation that have yet to fully understand the eagles' breeding habits, just 27 have been born in captivity. — BM, GMA News