Raps eyed vs courier firm in seized anteater, turtle parts

SAN PEDRO, Laguna—An antipoaching watchdog group is studying whether to sue a courier that had agreed to transport a cargo of turtle and anteater parts that were seized by authorities before these could be shipped to Cebu City.

Lawyer Adelina Benavente-Villena, head of the enforcement and legal division of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), said her group would definitely press charges against the consignee of the cargo and was studying the possibility of also suing the courier firm, Air 21, that would have shipped the animal parts to Cebu.

Villena said the courier’s liability is specified in Section 27 of the Philippine Wildlife Act that prohibits the transport of wildlife.

“We’ve had several meetings with them (courier and shipping companies) and they were told to strictly inspect all cargo,” Villena said in a phone interview on Thursday.

Airport and government authorities this week seized boxes of anteater scales and meat and scutes (the hard outer shell of turtles) of hawksbill turtles at the airport in Puerto Princesa City.

The first seizure was made on Monday when authorities seized four boxes that contained 95 kilograms of anteater scales and another four boxes of marine turtle scutes that weighed 90.5 kg. The boxes would have been shipped by Air 21 on a flight of the Cebu Pacific Airlines bound for Cebu City.

Two days later, airport authorities again seized a box that contained 26.5 kg of frozen anteater meat after its contents were detected by the airport’s X-ray machine. The shipper had left the box to an airport porter.

“This is the biggest shipment (intercepted) in recent years and obviously it’s on a commercial scale,” Villena said.

She said the scales and scutes are usually sold for P4,000 to P5,000 per kg and are used as materials for accessories such as guitar picks. The meat is falsely believed to have medicinal qualities.

Marine turtles are categorized as critically endangered while anteaters, which are endemic in Palawan, are threatened species. At least three anteaters must be killed to produce a kilogram of its scales.

Villena said the shipper of Monday’s haul, by the name of Novelito Rendon from Puerto Princesa, was a regular customer of Air 21, who used to ship boxes of dried fish.

“The first few times really contained dried fish. Perhaps that was why they didn’t bother anymore to inspect the boxes this time,” Villena said.

The boxes that were recovered Wednesday were named under a certain Lucio Ong with an address in Cebu City.

Authorities followed the leads to these people but could no longer locate them in the addresses listed on the cargo.