<\/img> <\/p>\n
A Philippine wildlife officer is suspected of
\nstealing more than 1,500 pounds (700 kilograms) of smuggled elephant
\ntusks seized last year, an embarrassing setback for the country’s
\nanti-poaching efforts, an official said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The ivory
\nworth $65,000 was part of a 8,800-pound (4,000-kilogram) shipment of
\ntusks that was impounded at Manila airport in July and turned over for
\ndisposal to the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, said Theresa
\nMundita Lim, the agency’s director. Trade in ivory is banned under U.N.
\nrules.<\/p>\n
She said the theft of nearly a fifth of the stored tusks
\nwas discovered while inventory was being taken on a warehouse Friday.
\nSeals on some of the boxes were broken and some of the original tusks
\nwere replaced by replicas made of PVC pipes covered with plaster, she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Wildlife authorities filed administrative charges against a
\npark supervisor, who may also face a criminal case depending on the
\nprobe by the National Bureau of Investigation, Lim said. The suspect,
\nwho was not identified, has not returned to work since Friday, she said.<\/p>\n
"This
\nis really embarrassing because we should be among the proactive
\ncountries protecting internationally important species," Lim told The
\nAssociated Press.<\/p>\n
"It is already a shame that the tusks are
\nsmuggled here and the Philippines is an end-market, where the tusks are
\nprocessed and finished products like carvings are exported from here."<\/p>\n
Lim
\nsaid Interpol has informed her office that a team of inspectors from
\nTanzania is due to arrive next week to carry out DNA tests on the tusks
\nto establish if they originated from the East African nation.<\/p>\n
She
\nsaid she was not even sure if all the tusks seized at the airport were
\nhanded over to her bureau. Customs officials last year said the
\nshipment was worth $2 million, but Lim said the street value of what
\nwas turned over to her office was about $450,000.<\/p>\n
"I don’t know where the other portion of the shipment went," she said, adding that the investigation has been ongoing.<\/p>\n
The whereabouts of tusks confiscated in previous smuggling attempts in 2005 and 2008 also are unclear, she said.<\/p>\n
Corruption
\nand smuggling, particularly in customs, has long been a concern.
\nPresident Gloria Macapagal Arroyo created an anti-smuggling group in
\n2007 to curb unlawful imports and other violations facilitated by
\ncorrupt customs officials.<\/p>\n
Trade in ivory was banned under the
\n1989 U.N. Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species that
\nhas helped in the recovery of the elephant population in several
\nAfrican countries.<\/p>\n
— Associated Press<\/p>\n
Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Photo: A Philippine Parks and Wildlife worker looks at fake elephant tusks at A Philippine wildlife officer is suspected of stealing more than 1,500 pounds (700 kilograms) of smuggled elephant tusks seized last year, an embarrassing setback for the country’s anti-poaching efforts, an official said Wednesday. The ivory worth $65,000 was part of a 8,800-pound (4,000-kilogram) shipment of tusks that was impounded at Manila airport in July and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"file:\/\/\/C:\/TMP\/moz-screenshot-1.png\")
<\/img><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"file:\/\/\/C:\/TMP\/moz-screenshot.png\")
<\/img><\/p>\n
\nleft which were used to replace stolen original tusks inside a storage
\nroom at the Parks and Wildlife office at Manila’s Quezon city Wednesday
\nMarch 3, 2010, in the Philippines. The original tusks
\ncan be seen at right. Credit: AP Photo\/Bullit Marquez<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"