Wildlife smuggling foiled at Naia; DOTC man held

FREE TO FLY SOON A young scops owl packed and marked as “plant export” to Japan is one of the 41 animals saved in an antismuggling operation Thursday. LYN RILLON

Several tarsiers, owls, lizards and snakes were found inside juice cartons and further hidden inside Styrofoam boxes in a foiled smuggling attempt at Ninoy Aquino International Airport late Thursday.

Authorities apprehended the alleged smuggler, Gerald Travo, an employee of the Office for Transportation Security under the Department of Transportation and Communications.

Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said they had placed Travo under surveillance based on a tip.

She said Travo put the endangered animals inside juice boxes, covered them with plants inside Styrofoam boxes, and marked them as plant exports bound for Japan. The animals were apparently meant to be sold as “exotic pets.”

Travo faces charges for smuggling and violation of the wildlife protection law. A follow-up investigation is checking if he had accomplices since the boxes were officially sealed and certified by the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture, Lim added.

“He goes in and out of the airport. We got a tip early this January so we did the surveillance,” she said of the suspect.

The recovered animals were alive but under stress when turned over to her bureau early Friday. They consisted of 11 tarsiers, three eagle owls, three scops owls, eight Philippine lizards, 11 monitor lizards and 5 rat snakes.

After they have recovered at the DENR Wildlife Rescue Center in Quezon City, they will be released back to their natural habitats, she said.