It may be smaller than the corals shipment seized in Luzon.
But the volume of black corals confiscated in Cebu City last May 19 are large enough to “cover twice or thrice the size of Metro Cebu,” or about 1,163 kilometers of area, a top Customs official said yesterday.
Bureau of Customs (BoC) Deputy Commissioner Horacio “Toto” Suansing Jr. made the statement as he personally inspected the 168 bundles of black sea fan corals that were released inside a 20-footer container van.
The container van was placed outside the Customs office in Pier 6 of the Cebu port area yesterday morning.
The Cebu shipment, along with the recent confiscated Luzon corals shipment, will be the subject of today’s Senate inquiry chaired by Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Suansing said they will give the names of the suspects behind the shipments during the investigation.
“Although the Luzon shipment was larger in volume, the black sea fan corals in Cebu are twice bigger,” Suansing said.
The shipment of corals that came from Zamboanga arrived in Cebu on board the MV Lorcon Manila vessel owned by Lorenzo Shipping Corp.
The Cebu shipment contained 168 bundles or roughly 375 pieces of endangered corals that Customs officials suspected to be worth P15 million.
Its cargo data indicated that the shipment contained scrap metal.
It was consigned to Cebu Junk Shop, a non-existent outlet. Suansing said the growth of these corals is so slow it would take 20 to 30 years to see corals as big as those found in the shipment.
“Saying that the value of the corals was P15 million is just an understatement,” Suansing said.
The Customs official said the experts told their office that the damage inflicted on the coral reefs is equivalent to hundreds of millions of pesos.
Suansing said the Senate inquiry will also include an investigation on local government units (LGUs) where the corals were reportedly harvested from.
“How could this be happening in their area when they know that it’s illegal?” he said.
Unless claimed, BoC-7 District Collector Ronnie Silvestre said the seized black sea fan corals may be turned over to the Bureau of Food and Drugs in Central Visayas.
“This will be used in schools for educational purposes,” Silvestre said.
Exequiel Navarro, consignee of the illegal shipment and a Filipino-Chinese businesswoman, were identified as suspects.
They face charges of violating the 1998 Fisheries Code, which prohibits the sale of endangered corals.
The sanctions may range from six months to two years and a P20,000 fine.
But Environment Secretary Ramon Paje wants to file charges of violations of the Wildlife Act, which provides harsher penalties instead of the Fisheries Code, Suansing said.
Cebu exporters acknowledged the value of black corals in the international market, saying they command high prices as aquarium accessories in Europe and the US.
Ramir Bonghanoy, president of the Cebu-Gifts, Toys and Housewares Foundation Inc., said some species of corals are used as fashion accessories.
But he said the sale of endangered corals had been banned in Cebu for over a decade now.
“European countries like Italy are pretty much heavy on the use of corals. There was even a show in Hong Kong featuring corals as accessory materials and we wonder why Hong Kong and China continue to show corals when they are considered endangered,” he said.
Bonghanoy told Cebu Daily News that black corals thrive in deep waters in the ocean and would take at least a decade to grow. With Correspondent Princess Kathleene Gabunales