Philippines is situated in a location wherein geographic features are favourable for the

existence and survival of different species, and some of them are recorded as endemic in the
country. ‘Galapagos times ten’, the words used by Tomas Santos in his paper titled ‘Philippines
remains a biodiversity hotspot. There are 52, 000 wildlife species housed in the Philippines as
reported by DENR on 2011, making the country a megadiverse. Animal species in the country’s
territory has an estimated number of over 38, 000 with over half being endemic species.
Relative to this, Rey Donne Papa, a bioloy professor explained that Mindoro is housing 2, 983
marine species in the Verde Island Passage. Among these numerous marine species, 300 were
identified as coral species.

Philippines also housed exceptional diversity flora with approximately 14, 000 species as
reported by NewCAPP. Forty percent of these flora species are identified as endemic in the
country. The most abundant existing flora population n the country are Orchidaceae and
Rubiaceae. Belonged to these populations is the species of Mussaenda ustii which is labelled
as endemic in Panay Islands.

Though Philippines is rich in biodiversity, Grecebio Alejandro, a plant systematist,

stressed that the country lacks comprehensive inventory of flora as compared to Thailand,
China and Indonesia. The Philippines has only few researchers and limited availability of
research technologies and ethodologies. Inaccessibility of locations is also a contributing factor
to a slow discover and inventory of species.

However, Philippine’ richness of diversity and endemism is in the verge of destruction

and exploitation. IUCN’s 2004 reported threatened species in the country including 52% for
vertebrates and 68% for invertebrates’ animals. For a total of 4, 437 wild fauna, 711 are
endemic in the country and 85 are threatened. Threatening of these species is due to the
alarming rate of destruction of habitat by overexploitation, deforestation, land degradation,
climate change and pollution. Rey Donne Papa said that the country lacks the ability to reinforce
environmental laws properly despite of the availability of good environmental laws.