The joint team of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) stopped the illegal sale of assorted corals and other prohibited species in Cartimar, Pasay City.
A total of 3,788 pieces of both hard and soft corals, coral stones and pebbles were seized by the NBI-Environmental Crime Division and BFAR’s law-enforcement group last week.
Five stalls were caught selling corals during a buy-bust operation, while two other stores were apprehended through “plain view doctrine”. The law enforcers found corals and juvenile clam species on the stores’ shelves for selling.
Based on the initial investigation, the corals were gathered from Lubang Island in
Mimaropa region.
Corals are hard, variously colored, calcareous skeleton secreted by tiny, soft-bodied marine organisms related to sea anemones and jellyfish. At their base is a hard, protective limestone skeleton, which forms the structure of coral reef. Reefs begin when the marine organism attaches itself to a rock on the sea floor, then divides, or buds into thousands of clones.
Republic Act 10654, or the amended Philippine Fisheries Code, prohibits the gathering, possessing, commercially transporting, selling or exporting ordinary, semiprecious and precious corals, whether raw or in processed form by any person
or corporation.
Upon a summary finding of administrative liability, the offender will be slapped an administrative fine equivalent to eight times the value of the corals, estimated at P500,000 to P10 million, and forfeiture of the corals.
Upon conviction by a court of law, the offender will be punished by imprisonment from 10 years to 20 years and a fine equivalent to twice the administrative fine and forfeiture of the
subject corals.
The confiscated items were brought to the evidence impounding area of the BFAR for preservation. Experts from the National Fisheries Research Development Institute, the agency’s research arm, are currently identifying the species of the corals.
Aside from corals, 14 seahorses, 34 giant-clam species and two helmet shells were also seized by the authorities.
The NBI has already filed a case against the violators.
Image credits: Bloomberg