Damage to Cotabato reef worse than expected, says DENR exec

Philippine customs officials inspect a seized shipment of over a hundred stuffed sea turtles and thousands of illegally-harvested corals at the Manila port. AFP

MANILA, Philippines—The havoc wrought by poachers on coral reefs off Southern Mindanao is “much worse” than was previously estimated, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said Saturday.

Theresa Mondita Lim, director of the department’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, said that the damaged area could reach “almost five times the size” of Manila and not twice as was previously reported.

Environment officials earlier said that poachers damaged a reef complex almost twice the size of the city of Manila when they harvested more than 21,000 pieces of black coral and killed 161 endangered turtles and other marine life that the Bureau of Customs later intercepted.

She added that DENR was already preparing to file charges against Exequiel Navarro, the consignee of the contraband, and the other persons he named responsible for the poaching and the smuggling attempt

“Our initial estimate was that it was twice the area of Manila but we validated this with a renowned expert on soft corals who is now in the country and he said that the area was much bigger,” Lim said.

She said expert Gary Williams  of the California Academy of Sciences estimated that the area damaged or destroyed could reach up to 190.8 square kilometers or five times the size of Manila, which has a land area of 38.55 square kilometers.

Lim said Williams is a world-renowned expert on corals whose research has brought him to the Galapagos Islands, Patagonia, Southern Africa, the Russian Far East, and Antartica.

“He is now in the country conducting a survey in Anilao and he said that the damage was much worse, almost five times the area of Manila,” Lim said.

“We will file the charges against those responsible for this as soon as possible. We won’t let them get away with this,” she added.

Lim said Navarro was already under the custody of the BOC and had already revealed the persons behind the poaching and smuggling attempt.

“The BOC is supposed to release their names (on Monday) and we will work on that to file the charges before the ‘green courts,’” Lim said.

She explained that the Supreme Court in 2009 designated courts that would handle environmental cases to expedite their resolution.

“We will charge them for violating the Wildlife Act and the Fisheries Code,” Lim said.

She added that Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, chair of the Senate committee on the environment, would also inspect of the confiscated black coral and dead turtles on Monday at the port of Manila.

Afterwards, the stuffed turtles would be taken to Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife while the back corals would be taken to the storage facility of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Lim said.