{"id":5539,"date":"2019-07-18T21:23:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T11:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=5539"},"modified":"2019-08-11T13:40:08","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T03:40:08","slug":"attempt-to-smuggle-endangered-species-at-manila-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=5539","title":{"rendered":"Attempt to smuggle endangered  species at Manila Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The turtles were found inside four pieces of abandoned luggage of a Filipino passenger who arrived from Hong Kong. <\/strong><em><br><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Turtles_20190401.jpg\" alt=\"The turtles were bound in duct tape to prevent movement. \" class=\"wp-image-5540\"\/><figcaption>The turtles were bound in duct tape to prevent movement. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Some\n1,500 live exotic turtles \u2501 some restrained with duct-tape \u2501 have been found inside an airline\npassenger&#8217;s luggage, Philippine authorities said, as they vowed a crackdown on\nthe lucrative wildlife trade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nPhilippines is a major source and transit point of wildlife trafficking,\naccording to a 2018 report by the US State Department. It is likely that the\nturtles were caught in the disputed West Philippine Sea by Chinese poachers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\npassenger fled before authorities could confront him, customs officials said.\n&#8220;We saw the images from the x-ray machine,&#8221; Manila airport customs\nchief Carmelita Talusan told Agence France Presse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We never expected it would reach as many as 1,530,&#8221; Talusan said. &#8220;Our staff were taking care not to hurt them because duct tape was used to immobilize the turtles.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"453\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Turtles_20190402.jpg\" alt=\"\ufeffCustoms Collector Chief Carmelita Talusan with her colleagues carefully removing duct tapes from the turtles. \" class=\"wp-image-5541\"\/><figcaption>\ufeffCustoms Collector Chief Carmelita Talusan with her colleagues carefully removing duct tapes from the turtles. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Talusan\nsaid the matter was under investigation and authorities had identified the\npassenger, who could face charges of violating the nation&#8217;s illegal wildlife\ntrading law, which carry a maximum two years in prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nseized turtles were estimated to be worth in excess of 13 million pesos\n(AUD329,000), a customs bureau official said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nturtles confiscated on were likely destined to be sold in the Philippines or\nsmuggled to other countries using false documents, environment officials said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s\nfor business purposes. Those turtles are expensive. It&#8217;s such a lucrative\nbusiness. There are buyers and collectors who treat them as pets,&#8221;\nenvironment undersecretary Benny Antiporda told AFP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are stepping up our all-out drive against the black market of endangered species.&#8221; <em><br><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The turtles were found inside four pieces of abandoned luggage of a Filipino passenger who arrived from Hong Kong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":5595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5542,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5539\/revisions\/5542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}