EDGEDAVAO
VOL. 9 ISSUE 132 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, AUGUST 28 - 29, 2016
P 15.00 • 20 PAGES
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NEWS
1st round of peace talks with NDFP concluded By ALEXANDER D. LOPEZ
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HE first round of peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) concluded on Friday, August 26 with high hopes that the accomplishments reached between the two parties will carry the negotiations to the next round in October 8 to 12 in Oslo, Norway. “Ours was a leap of faith when we braved to re-engage each other last Monday after more than half a decade of impasse and indifference. But no matter how difficult it was, we choose to believe and today, we start receiving the dividends of that faith,” said Secretary Silvestre Bello III, chair of the GRP panel in a statement sent to the media. The agreements reached during the first round of talks charted how far
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MOUNT APO’S BIODIVERSITY REDISCOVERED BY HENRYLITO D. TACIO
“The worst thing that can happen – will happen – is not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.” – Harvard Magazine
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IODIVERSITY – coined from biological diversity – is most often thought of as the variety of organisms on earth. Yet it also includes two other factors: ecological diversity (the variety of ecosystems and ecological communities) and genetic diversity (the range of genetic differences found within and between species). “All three aspects are crucial for the success and development of life on earth,” explains People and the Planet, a group raising environmental concerns based in London. “Since environmental conditions at every level are constantly changing, only diversity can ensure that some individuals and species will be able to
adapt to the changes.” Species declines and extinctions have always been a natural part of that process, but there is something disturbingly different about the current extinction patterns. “Like the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, humanity now finds itself in the midst of a mass extinction: a global evolutionary convulsion with few parallels in the entire history of life,” wrote John Tuxill and Chris Bright, authors of Losing Strand in the Web of Life. “But unlike the dinosaurs, we are not simply the contemporaries of a mass extinction – we are the reason of it.” The Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), of which the
Philippines is a signatory, has listed several wildlife species in the country that are rare, threatened, or endangered. Among these are the Philippine eagle (the country’s bird icon), tamaraw, calamian deer, Palawan bearcat, Mindanao gymure, Philippine tarsier, Panay flying fox, Cebu black shama, Philippine cockatoo, “bungang ipot,” “tagbak,” and Sander’s glocacia. “A few decades ago, the wildlife of the Philippines was notable for its abundance; now, it is notable for its variety; if present trend of destruction continues, Philippine wildlife will be notable for its absence,” deplored Dr. Lee Talbot, a well-known ecologist and
geographer. Why are we losing our biodiversity at alarming rate? “When people speak of the loss of biodiversity, they are referring to the exceptionally large numbers of species forced to the brink of extinction due to human activities,” explained H. Steven Dashefsky, author of Environmental Literacy: Everything You Need to Know About Saving Our Planet. Species becoming extinct is not a new phenomenon but the speed with which these species are being lost is a major concern. A group of distinguished American biologists have called the species extinction crisis “a threat to civilization
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Free Masons to gather in Mati City, Sept. 1 & 2
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By RIA VALDEZ
HE 19th Multidistrict Convention of the Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines will be held this September 1 and 2 in Mati City. “Up to 250 delegates coming from 26 Masonic lodges of Southern Mindanao composed of Cotabato City, Kidapawan City and North Cotabato, Koronadal City, General Santos City and SOCSKSARGEN region, Davao City and del Sur, Davao del Norte and Davao Oriental, and delegates from Manila are expected to attend,” according to Julius S. Valdez, District Deputy Grand Master of Davao del Norte and Oriental. “Former National Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin, grand master of masons in the Philippines, is our principal speaker,” Valdez said. The Free and Accepted Masons, the oldest fraternity and biggest charitable institution with millions of members in the world, was formally founded in 1717 in Scotland. Its principal tenets are brotherly love, relief for those in need and the virtue to stand for what is the truth. Its main objective is making good men better. It has established many hospitals, schools, and other institutions—spending 2 million dollars a day on charity alone. The members of the royal family in England and Scotland were Masons. In the USA, the framers and signatories of the US constitution were Masons. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman,
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EDGEDAVAO Sports
Young cadets take over in Gilas squad P16