RP warns hunters vs availing of US ‘safari package’
Instead of trophy animals, wildlife hunters availing of a United States safari firm’s Philippine package will face criminal cases if they insist on wildlife hunting here. This was the warning aired Monday by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), even after the US safari firm’s Web page on the Philippine package has already been taken down. “DENR does not allow hunting of wildlife in any place in the country," DENR Secretary Horacio Ramos said in an article on the DENR Web site. Ramos issued the warning amid reports that US-based Adventures411 was offering a jungle safari in Mindoro. The web-based hunting package cited Palawan, Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, Romblon and Marinduque as the places where this “Philippine safari" was to be held. Ramos urged “anybody who has knowledge of these hunting groups" to get in touch with local DENR offices either via telephone at (02) 4050323, short message service at 0917-302-9257, or email at pawb_4b@yahoo.com/ph. Ramos warned local and foreign nationals alike are equally liable under the act even by mere publication of the activity. “Any published or posted information on the Internet or in any publication, inviting prospective tourists or individuals for action adventure in the Philippines by way of game hunting, must be treated with utmost caution as these activities may be illegal," he said. Dead links As of Monday afternoon, the Adventures411 home page contained dead links. The DENR cited earlier reports indicating that the site, when it was still online, offered a 14-day hunting package and a “guaranteed 100 percent of killing major trophy animals." Such trophy animals include Philippine endangered animals like the Asian Sambar deer, Philippine mouse deer, saltwater crocodile, and the Philippine wart pig. Pictures of hunters, mostly foreigners, beside the carcasses of these animals circulated on the Internet last week. Hunting or unauthorized collection of endangered and vulnerable species - or species whose number is nearing extinction - is a criminal offense under Republic Act 9147, or the Philippine Wildlife Conservation Act of 2001. It carries penalties of imprisonment from two to 12 years, including fines ranging from P30,000 to P1 million. On the other hand, Ramos cautioned foreigners that they may still be caught for breaking Philippine wildlife laws even if they are on their native soil. The Wenzek case He cited the reported conviction of German national Gunther Wenzek last January 14 on the strength of an American law that recognizes Philippine law on wildlife conservation and protection. US Customs officials arrested Wenzek in 2007 for violation of the Lacey Act and RA 9147, which strictly prohibits the harvesting and trading of Philippine corals. The Lacey Act, on the other hand, prohibits possession, transport or trade of wildlife species that have been illegally collected, transported or sold in violation of wildlife laws existing in their countries of origin. Wenzek was sentenced to serve three years on probation and pay a fine amounting to at least $35,000 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon for shipping into the Port of Portland some 40 tons of corals belonging to the scientific order Scleractinia, genera Porites, Acropora, and Pocillopora, common to Philippine reefs. - KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV