Residents, aided by volunteers and Philippine Coast Guard personnel, rescued a short-finned pilot whale that was stranded in the coastal shores of Magallanes town in Agusan del Norte last Saturday. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Caraga Region said residents of the coastal Barangay Buhang found the 3.6-meter whale already weak from a wound inflicted by a spear gun. Dr. Leona Nortega, a veterinarian and one of the volunteers, carefully removed the tip of the spear gun, applied antiseptics, and administered a vitamin B-complex shot before releasing the whale back to the sea. Meanwhile, Philippine National Police Chief General Nicolas Torre III stated in Manila that the militants from the Dawlah Islamiya-Maute Group involved in an encounter with a joint police and Army team in Lanao del Sur were mostly children, some as young as 13 years old. Torre revealed that a woman and a child warrior were among those killed in the clash in Lumbayanague over the weekend, and 12 of those arrested by the police and Army soldiers after the gun battle were minors.
