The Philippines is seeing a stronger partnership among southeast Asian countries in curtailing the illegal wildlife trade.{{more}}
Antonio Manila, assistant director of the Protected Area and Wildlife Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources told reporters here at Silliman University in Dumaguete City Thursday that the Philipines has enlisted the support of government line agencies under the Regional Wildlife Enforcement Network to stop the illicit trade of wildlife, particularly exotic birds, from Indonesia.
Manila, who was in Dumaguete for an assessment seminar on the effectiveness of the Protected Area Management in the country, said that illegal wildlife trade now ranks as the third largest illegal business in the world, next only to drugs and firearm-smuggling.
“The figure runs into the billions of pesos,” Manila said.
Manila said that Indonesia and Malaysia are cooperating with the Philippines in monitoring the backdoor for the illicit wildlife trade.
The height of the illegal wildlife trade in the Philippines was between 2005 to 2007 when species of Indonesian Red Parrots, the Moluccan Parrots and other exotic species, usually ended up in the Cartimar and Arranque markets in the nation’s capital.
These animals were smuggled through Saranggani and Davao.
Manila recalled an incident where more than 300 birds, mostly parrots smuggled from Indonesia, were burned by authorities in Mindanao in 2007 to avoid the spread of avian flu.
He said that the illegal wildlife trade in the Philippines has waned since the full-scale implementation of Republic Act 9147, otherwise known as the Wildlife Act.
Manila said that since the implementation of the Wildlife Act, the Philippines has charged several persons for illegal trafficking of wildlife. But the test case, he said is the case filed in 2008 against a Bukidnon farmer who shot and killed a three-year-old juvenile male Philippine Eagle, an endangered species and one of the world’s largest and rarest eagles.
The farmer, Brian Balaon, is facing charges punishable by up to 12 years in jail and P1 million in fines.
