MANOLO FORTICH, Bukidnon (October 11) – Bird watchers and raptor enthusiasts will soon
have an “ecocultural experience” at Mt. Kapulinagan here when the view deck and bunkhouse
inaugurated last Monday will be open for their use early next year

Visitors will experience the natural and cultural landscape of the community and the rituals and
traditions of the Bukidnon tribe as it will be part of the eco-cultural tourism package.
“There (will be) ritual, dances, arts, landscapes, the (Philippine) Eagle, and food,” Dr. Jayson C.
Ibañez, Director of Operations at the Philippine Eagle Foundation, told reporters here.
But visitors, he said, will be “targeted,” to safeguard the Philippine Eagles and “not to disturb the
birds they are observing” at Kapulinagan Peak.
“It’s like for a special group of people who have the resources and are willing to pay a premium
for the experience,” he said.
Ibañez said this can be an economic opportunity for the community.
The Municipal Tourism Office, he added, is completing its community-based tourism (CBT)
training.
Ibañez told MindaNews that they are expecting their first birders from Japan in February.
The area where the structures are built is overlooking the home to the Philippine Eagles
Kalabugao (female) and Guilang-guilang (male).
The eagles, Ondayan said, are usually seen in flight at 9 in the morning.
Kalabugao, then barely a year old, was rescued in 2008 from a farmer in a village in Manolo
Fortich town, and was transported to the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao City for treatment and
rehabilitation. It was released back to the forests of Bukidnon – at the Mt. Kitanglad Range
Natural Park – in October 2009. It is the first Philippine Eagle to have been rescued and
rehabilitated as a juvenile and released to the wild where it reached sexual maturity and breed.
Kalabugao and Guilang-guilang’s first offspring, “Maluko” which hatched in 2017, was named
in honor of the previous name of the municipality.Ibañez said they have already recorded six hatched eggs, including Maluko in the area.
But they have not been able to track the offsprings because the GPS trackers are “very
expensive,” Ibañez said.

He said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) should fund the tagging
process.
The area where the facilities are is also part of the carbon sink project where at least 8,000
seedlings have been planted since last year on a seven hectare part of the mountain.
Ibañez said PEF and local partners, are eyeing another 14 hectares to reforest next year.
For forest guard Nandi Ondayan, the opening of the facilities at Kapulinagan Peak can help them
in their efforts to protect the forest. He said they need not go downtown to find other means of
income.
Ondayan stressed the need to protect the Philippine Eagle as doing so means their farmlands are
protected from wild boars and monkeys that prey on their crops.
Honorio Sumohoy, Bray. Guilang-guilang’s Indigenous People’s Mandatory Representative
(IPMR) and chieftain of the tribe, recalled that a large portion of their forest caught fire in the
1980s due to extreme weather.
Edgar Gayona, Ecosystem Management Specialist of the Community Environment and Resource
Office (CENRO) in the municipality said they are lobbying for the declaration of “protected
area” across 21,000 hectares in Manolo Fortich and Impasug-ong towns.
He said they are meeting with the IPMRs of the different barangays that will be part of the
protected area. (Razl EJ Teman / MindaNews)