Clam thieves arrested in 100 Islands
ALAMINOS CITY–Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures.
So goes one popular saying among environment-conscious travelers.
And four people, three of whom are tourists and one a resident, learned this lesson the hard way. They were arrested separately by the city’s police and officials of the Public Order and Safety Office (POSO)- –Bantay Dagat for poaching giant clams (Tridacna gigas) known to be an aphrodisiac.
Arrested were businessman Nik Othman Abdullah from Manila, Jay R Aymin from Makati and their 17-year old companion Rashed Abdullah. They were all arrested at the Children’s Island, one of the developed islands among the world-famous Hundred Islands National Park (HINP) here.
Earlier, Jimmy Rabago, a resident here, was arrested for harvesting and killing a giant clam near the Quezon Island.
The three tourists defended themselves claiming they were not aware of the prohibition against catching giant clams and the two elder men pointed to the minor Rashed as the one who took the clams.
Re-elected Mayor Hernani Braganza was fuming mad when he learned of the tourists’ irresponsible act, and immediately ordered the POSO and the local police to speed up the filing of charges against them before the City Prosecutor’s Office.
If found guilty, the suspects face imprisonment and a stiff administrative fine of as much as P40,000 per giant clam poached.
A year ago, a Taiwanese committed the same violatinhere and paid a high price for it.
Republic Act 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas Systems (NIPAS) Act particularly section 20, prohibits the hunting and harvesting of this protected marine specie.
Braganza has vigorously campaigned for the protection and preservation of the giant clam garden at the HINP which his uncle, former President Fidel Ramos, initiated in the early 1990s.
“We would like to assure our guests that they could always freely snorkel at the giant clam garden, take pictures and even touch these endangered species now teeming at the park,” he said.–EVA
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