Chinese poachers nabbed in Zamboanga

Zamboanga, The Philippines-Sunbstar (Apr 7, 2007

Combined government operatives have seized large quantities of banned shell products and dried sea horse that could worth millions of pesos in a raid in this city.

The confiscation was made last Thursday at Lian Huat Trading Warehouse located in Magay, this city, according to Naval Forces Western Mindanao chief Emilio Marayag, Jr.

Marayag was designated last month as Deputized Environment and Natural Resources Officer (Denro) by Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angelo Reyes.

He said the confiscation was made in line with the enforcement of several statutes like Section 97 of the Republic Act 8550, which provides that it shall be unlawful to fish or take rare, threatened or endangered species as listed in the convention on International Trade of endangered species (Cites).

He said the confiscation is also in line with the Fisheries Administrative Order Number 208 Series of 2001, which states "it shall be unlawful for any person, natural or juridical, to take or catch or cause to be taken the specified fishery/aquatic shell species."

Philippine Wildlife Act also prohibits the taking of sea turtles, as the species is recognized as endangered in the Philippines, according to Marayag.

He also cited the DENR Memo Order Number 06 in conjunction with DENR Administrative Order Number 48, which disallows exploitation activities related to marine turtles.

Among the items confiscated on the strength of a search warrant are banned shell products, dried carapace of sea turtles and dried sea horse.

Marayag said proper charges will be filed against the owners of the warehouse identified as Olivia Li and Tomas Lim.

He said the seized items are now under the custody of the National Bureau Investigation (NBI) regional office in this city.

Aside from the Navy and NBI, the raid was carried out together with personnel from the Task Force Zamboanga, Police Regional Office and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar).

After he was deputized as Denro, Marayag has initiated inter-agency consultation to encourage active participation by the different government agencies to detect, prevent and suppress violations of marine environmental laws in order to preserve and protect the environment.

The raid and confiscated of the banned marine products was the first that was made after Marayag was named Denro by Reyes.

just recently, we spotted 2 or 3 fishing boats on our way to turtle bay for dolphin/ whale watching. according to the boatman they were chinese fishing vessels caught doing illegal fishing in/near Tubbataha. the local authorities have no choice but to seize the boats. :D

back in manila we have a place called Ongpin. just like China town. there, we usually see dried sea horse for sale. :(

I knew about the seahorse siezure way back in April - 1 million pesos worth (20,000 USD).

This is the tip of a huge iceberg there and in other places.

The Chinese and others (Koreans for example) are exploiting many in the Philippines to supply them with huge quantities of rare and endangered life to support their disgusting cravings.

There are many in the World who will be outraged by this. However, though many people are outraged, they do little that is practical to help the Philippine people to stop this from happening.

In my opinion, strict policing, very long jail sentances and huge fines would work.

In practice, the Philippines have little money to spend on coastguards, rarely catch people 'red-handed' and often 'allow' unethical/illegal fishing because of the aforementioned.

This is a matter for Filipinos to address with their elected representatives. So what if some are caught? I wonder what percentage this is. I suspect less than 1 or 2%.

Will this change??? I don't think so.

Sorry to be so negative, but the Chinese and Koreans are bleeding the Philippines dry and destroying your reefs and reef-life.

WWD