Black coral 'quarrying' bared

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines  – The huge haul of corals and shells found in a warehouse here had been quarried and not just harvested by small-time poachers, according to Mayor Celso Lobregat. 

“Looking at what was recovered from the warehouse, the volume could not be considered only as extraction but quarrying of corals. It is really a rape of the sea,” Lobregat said.

“The corals that have been quarried did not come from Zamboanga City seas and the city was used as transshipment point,” he said. Lobregat is assisting in the investigation and prosecution of the people behind the smuggling of corals here. The corals and shells were found in a warehouse in Barangay San Roque.

Marine biologists from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources have been doing an inventory since last week on the seized marine resources placed inside hundreds of sacks and boxes.

“It has taken years for those corals to grow to that size and what has been taken out cannot be put back. So, it is really a rape of the seas,” he said.

The inventory team has so far documented about 35 percent of the estimated 30 to 40 tons of recovered smuggled corals and shells in this city. Authorities estimate that it will take them weeks to complete the inventory.

Results of the inventory will be used as evidence in the filing of cases against Li Yu Ming alias Joe Pring and wife Olivia Lim-Li.

Lobregat said the inventory team has not come across any carcass of sea turtles similar to those intercepted in Manila.

“However, the police are closely monitoring because there was information that there was (contraband of turtle carcasses),” Lobregat said.

The Chinese couple reportedly slipped out of the country after the Senate ordered their arrest when they failed to show up at a hearing by the committee on environment and natural resources.

City Police Director Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo said their search for the couple had been fruitless.

“The Senate sergeant-at-arms is still here and our police and the CIDG continue to assist them in finding the wanted couple,” De Ocampo said.