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On December 8, 1998, the Philippine Ambassador to the United States hosted a special afternoon symposium at the
Philippine Embassy in Washington DC, at which Thomas Headland was the plenary speaker. An abridged version of the text of his address is presented. Headlands main message was a warning to the Philippine leaders of the
environmental crisis looming in that nation, and a plea to the Philippine government to maintain the momentum they gained in 1997 with the passage of Republic Act 8371, called the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act. The Philippine Ambassador hosted this event. The audience included representatives from the World Bank, USAID, the Peace Corps, the Smithsonian Institution, environmental NGOs, diplomats from other embassies, human rights lawyers, and anthropologists. Headlands address was reported in the Anthropology
Newsletter (1999) and in ASAA (1999).