FILIPINO world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, after defeating former World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico, recently threw himself to the ring anew, this time to fight Mindanao’s illegal loggers as head of a special task force deputized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, who led another hero’s welcome at the DENR’s central office in Quezon City before the scheduled parade Tuesday morning, announced the activation of “Task Force Luwas Kinaiyakan.”

Employees of the DENR who waited for Pacquiao’s arrival at the DENR cheered as the Filipino fighter’s convoy entered the compound. Bands hired for the occasion, including a group named “Malabon 4,” a Tondo-based Ati-atihan community band, a piano-and-lyre ensemble composed of elementary pupils, played their music as he entered the building.

Atienza thanked Pacquiao, who he said “threw himself into the ring” for yet another crucial battle for the protection of the environment and the conservation of the country’s wildlife, such as the endangered Philippine Eagle.

He said that the private sector-led initiative to protect the environment will boost the government’s effort. 

“I am thanking Manny for throwing himself into the ring to fight for environmental protection. The task force, led by a boxing champion like Manny, will encourage the people to support the government’s call to help protect the environment and stop illegal logging in Mindanao,” Atienza said.

In the same press briefing, Pacquiao announced that he is donating P100,000 for the preservation of the Philippine Tarsiers, which is endemic to the Philippines. The tarsiers, the smallest mammal on earth, used to thrive in Bohol, but its number diminished together with its natural habitat—the forests.

The donation will go to a local foundation that is leading the protection and conservation of the endangered Philippine tarsier in Bohol, under the supervision of the Protective Areas and Wildlife Bureau, an attached agency of the DENR, Atienza said.

Last October after his successful campaign in the ring, Pacquiao, who vowed to help protect the Philippine Eagle which is threatened by extinction, donated P100,000 to the Philippine Eagle Foundation.

According to Atienza, the task force was conceived by Pacquiao and was officially activated as early as November last year while the Filipino pugilist was preparing for his Las Vegas fight.

THE United States has increased credit guarantees for American companies selling rice to the Philippines, allowing its businesses to profit from the Asian nation’s grain shortage. The Philippines is the world’s biggest rice importer.

A FOREIGN investment group said the Philippines needs to create more quality jobs and generate wealth within the domestic economy to cope with East Asian integration benefiting emerging giants like India and China.

LEGAZPI CITY—THE mayor of this premier Bicol city called on all Filipinos staying anywhere in the world to rally behind Mayon Volcano and the two other Philippine entries to the ongoing worldwide search for the “New Seven Wonders of Nature.”

THE Philippine government is planning to give income-tax holidays (ITH) and eliminate tariffs, ensuring that prices of construction materials—particularly cement and steel products—will be maintained.

NONGOVERNMENT organizations (NGOs) advocating chemical safety and public health along with other environmental groups have welcomed a United Nations-assisted project that will help rid the Philippines of toxic chemicals which may cause cancer.

FILIPINO world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, after defeating former World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico, recently threw himself to the ring anew, this time to fight Mindanao’s illegal loggers as head of a special task force deputized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

ALLAYING fears of a copra shortage next year, the Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies Inc. (Aispi) clarified Tuesday that production of biodiesel—which will use copra as an ingredient—will not bring about a shortfall in copra production in 2009.