A proposed amendment to Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, will impose a stiffer penalty for wildlife traffickers who seem to have brushing off penalties and fines under the law, officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.
Undersecretary Benny D. Antiporda, deputy spokesman of Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, said the DENR will push stiffer penalty under the law and intensify anti-illegal wildlife trade operations through the DENR-led Task Force Pogi.
Although Antiporda maintained that the DENR is not remiss on its duties and has succeeded in putting wildlife criminals behind bars, the DENR official underscored the need to put more teeth to the law to protect and conserve the country’s rich biodiversity.
“To stop illegal wildlife trade, we must impose stiffer penalty,” Antiporda said.
He noted that some illegal wildlife trade are making a mockery of the law by pleading guilty and enter a plea-bargaining agreement with the court for reduced sentence.
A case in point is the recent plea-bargaining agreements entered into by the illegal wildlife traders with the prosecutors, which presiding judges have eventually approved. Last July 18, Presiding Judge Liezl Rosario Mendoza of Branch 1 of the Municipal Trial Court of Tagaytay City sentenced Simforoso Salazar, Jorlan Torrequimada and Victor Equisa up to three months in jail and ordered to pay a fine of P20,000 each, after pleading guilty to violating the provisions of RA 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001.
The agreement was seen as mere slap in the wrist considering the gravity of their offense they were apprehended for pangolin trafficking. Pangolins are on the brink of extinction owing to the high demand for their meat, scale and body parts, which are being exported to China and Vietnam, mostly, for traditional medicine use.
Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon, concurrent director of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) agrees that imposing stiffer penalty will help deter wildlife crimes, which of late, has become more rampant with the help of social media.
Recent posts on Facebook show that the underground pet trade targeting “exotic” or “rare” wildlife like birds of prey, turtles and other species are threatened with extinction are flourishing and authorities are still playing catch up in pinning down unscrupulous traders behind the illicit activities.
Image credits: AP/Sakchai Lalit