The provincial governor’s office in Cotabato, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources 12, and the police have fused ranks for a common, extensive wildlife protection thrust in all towns in the province and in its capital, Kidapawan City.

Media 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 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 Philippine Eagle, scientific name Pithecophaga jefferyi, immediately after it perched on 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.

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 in areas under their jurisdiction the RA 9147 to ensure the protection of wildlife in all forests in the province.

The Cotabato provincial government and local executives in the province are now disseminating to the public of the penalties for violations of the RA 9147, which include fines ranging from P10,000 to P1 million and six to 12 years imprisonment based on the extent of each offense.

Two ranking Army officials, Brig. Gen. Ricky 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 Luzon, assured 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 is in Mawab, Davao de Oro, both have units in different towns in Cotabato, one of the four provinces in Region 12 that also has four component-cities.

Photo shows the now second term governor of Cotabato, Talino-Mendoza, whose administration has intensified its wildlife protection activities, partly focused on the conservation of the Philippine Eagle, many of which are still often seen flying, hoovering above forests in highlands in the tri-boundaries of Cotabato, Davao del Sur and Bukidnon provinces in Mindanao. (October 11, 2026)