What's On & Expat - Philippines

A moored Chinese
poaching vessel, marked only with the numbers 01087, was recently apprehended by combined units of the Philippine Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Police and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) between the isles of Batu Mandi and Mambahinawan in the Sulu Archipelago last September 2.

    Nine of Two Hundred Survive
   Among the catch, nine turtles survived, seven male and two female, which were released on the morning of September 4.
    The craft, along with its 19 crewmen, are currently detained in Bongao port.
They been charged with violating the Philippine Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act (RA9147), penalties for which

     Amidst fears that justice might be elusive, global conservation organization WWF is acting as a watchdog to ensure that these charges push through, to bring the accused to justice.
          
       The Chinese Connection
“This is by no means the first time that foreign nationals encroached upon Philippine waters to plunder our nation’s

 This is a great sign. While we are not lacking environmental laws, enforcement and the political will to see these cases through leads much to be desired. WWF is hopeful that the accused finally get what’s due for them,” adds Romero.
    In the last nine years, more than 900 foreigners have

     A routine inspection by the boarding crew revealed rows of sea turtles—dead, gutted and left to dry on deck. The official count was 50 dried, 58 freshly-gutted and 18 still-living turtles, mostly green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) which is classified internationally as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and one of the flagship species that the WWF-Philippines and the DENR is protecting.
Onboard the craft were 19 Chinese nationals.
   Vessel 01087 was eventually escorted to the nearby capital of Tawi-Tawi, Bongao.

rich but dwindling marine resources,” says WWF Tawi-Tawi Project Manager Filemon Romero,
    On December 2006, the M/V Hoi Wan, another Chinese fishing vessel, had been caught poaching off Tubbataha Reef. Amongst its catch were 359 CITES-protected napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus). The case remains unresolved.
    Another previous incident was of the M/V Kwok Wai Ming case. Twenty-four Chinese blast fishermen had been caught poaching off Mangsee Island in Balabac, Palawan.

been arrested and charged for poaching in the waters of Palawan alone. More than 660 of these poachers were from China. However, only one case, the January 2004 arrest of 17 Sino-poachers caught with 54 dead turtles, has ever led to a conviction.
They were eventually pardoned after paying a fine, in order not to strain the relations between the Philippines and China.

            Heartbreaking
   WWF hopes that the Philippine government will finally have the resolve to dispense justice against foreign poachers who disregard both local and international laws.

Considering that the crew was scuttling much of the carcasses to hide the evidence, the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau’s final tally was pegged at 200 adult turtles and over 10,000 eggs killed. A pair of live pelagic thresher sharks (alopias pelagicus), classified by the IUCN as vulnerable, were also found in the vessel’s holding tanks.

can incur a fine of up to one million pesos, coupled with a six-year jail term.
The crewmen may also be charged with violating the following: the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act (RA7586), Wildlife Conservation Act (RA9147), illegal incursion and the Fisheries Code of 1998 (RA8550).

    Just last January, WWF’s Tawi-Tawi team celebrated the year of the turtle by releasing six captive green sea turtles in Sitangkai. Says Romero, “We worked so hard to save half a dozen and these pirates kill them by the hundreds. It’s just heartbreaking. If in our enforcement campaigns we have been strict with the poor local people, we should be unrelenting to foreigners who commit these fisheries and environmental crimes by destroying our national posterity such as our marine biodiversity.”