BOC: DENR mum on pilfered elephant tusks

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) said yesterday it has been a week since it asked the Department of Natural Resources about the pilfered elephant tusks, but it has yet to receive a reply from the DENR.

Some of the tusks, worth millions of pesos, had been discovered missing last February while they were stored at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Nature Center in Quezon City, which is under the DENR.

BOC customs police Chief Superintendent Jose Yuchongco said they sent a letter to the DENR last March 8, but since then there has been no reply.

Yuchongco also said even the five investigators from Tanzania, who arrived in the country last March 7 to get information on the smuggled tusks that reportedly came from their country, seemed disappointed. They were apparently unaware that some of the tusks had been stolen.

“It is my impression that they were not satisfied because they went here to see everything and might have been surprised to hear that there were pilferage and that the missing items were replaced with imitations of the tusks,” said Yuchongco.

While they were in the country, they visited the Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI), the BOC Legal Division and the DENR office. The foreign investigators returned to Tanzania last Saturday.

Yuchongco said he was not certain if the investigators visited the park where the smuggled items were reportedly stored. The DENR reportedly informed the Tanzanians that they have already asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the alleged pilferage.