Capt. Jerry Arizabal, Customs Police Division commander, said they received reports that the corals would be delivered to Cebu Junkshop, which he described as a “fictitious” company. Black corals consist of deep-water, tree-like corals.
Arizabal said his men searched inside the MV Lorcon Voyage 20 of Lorenzo Shipping and, within minutes, found the corals placed inside a 10-footer van. No one was arrested.
Arizabal said the shipment came from Zamboanga City and the corals were bound for Manila.
Since a P20-million shipment of black corals was seized in Manila last week, Arizabal believes the shipper decided to sell the corals in Cebu.
The authorities are still verifying the shipper’s identity.
There is a global prohibition on the collection and harvesting of black corals, which are listed in the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora as threatened and endangered species.
Section 91 of Republic Act 8550, otherwise known as the Fisheries Code of 1998, prohibits any person or corporation to gather, possess, sell or export ordinary, precious and semiprecious corals, whether in raw or processed form.
Violators will be imprisoned from six months to two years and fined P2,000 to P20,000.
Black corals are mostly used for decoration, jewelry and fashion accessories.
In 2009 the World Wildlife Fund recommended that 20 percent to 30 percent of coral reefs, mangroves and wetlands in the Coral Triangle Initiative be declared “strictly protected, no-take zones,” in order for fisheries to remain sustainable.
But as early as 1994, the report said, less than five percent of the Philippines’ coral reefs remained in excellent condition. The Philippines is one of six countries in the triangle.
(PNA)
