Coast Guard-Bohol confiscates chopped manta rays

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — Coast Guard personnel in Tagbilaran City last week seized chopped pieces of two manta rays (sanga in Visayan dialect).

The pieces of meat were found loaded into a yellow cargo truck (plate number 074807), owned by Paterna Cero, and on a white motorboat (MB/CA The Original Double D) but without any documents for its operation or permit to transport the items.

The Coast Guard intercepted the banned cargo —chopped manta rays — from these vehicles and about to be transported to Pamilacan Island off Baclayon town by the motorboat, owned by Cecilio Pingkian and skippered by Angel Pingkian, all residents of the island..

Pedro Millana Jr., of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources who inspected the chopped parts of the marine mammal, confirmed that the species were all manta rays (Manta alferdi and Manta birostris).

These species are protected under Fisheries Administrative Order 193 and Republic Act 9147, known as The Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, BFAR said in the Coast Guard report.

The owner of the chopped manta rays was identified as businesswoman Milagros Valeroso, who in turn told BFAR and Coast Guard authorities that she bought these from a certain Tita Orculit, a resident of Jagna town in Bohol, where she said the meat came from.

Valeroso said the meat of the banned manta rays were about to be transported to Pamilacan island for trading." She said the cargo cost them P20,000, but she refused to say how much she would gain if sold by retail or in dried form. She also said she did not know that the species she bought were prohibited.

Dried sanga now costs between P600 and P1,000 per kilo, and trading of this still thrives in some towns in Bohol, like Baclayon and Jagna, sources said.

The stink of the seized cargo disturbed the surroundings on Friday, February 24, after the Coast Guard seized this. On the same day, the Coast Guard decided to bury the pieces of meat somewhere in Calape town.

Hunting and trading of manta rays are also common place in the eastern part of Bohol, particularly in Jagna town.

The Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines said the BFAR and local government units should do their parts in monitoring and enforcing the law." (FREEMAN)