ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 13, 2012) – Philippine security forces seized dozens of dried turtles and arrested its owner for violating the country’s wildlife and fisheries law in the southern province of Tawi-Tawi, police said Wednesday.
Police said Utong Gumbahali, 37, is facing charges for catching and killing sea turtles for trade. “He was apprehended for violation of the Wildlife and Fisheries Act and is facing charges,” Senior Superintendent Rodelio Jocson, the provincial police chief, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said Gumbahali was arrested on Wednesday afternoon after a joint police and military patrol spotted the dried turtles in front of his house in the village of Datu Puti on Sitangkai Island.
“The largest dried turtles measured about 32 inches, while the smallest 21 inches,” Jocson said.
Jocson did not say what species of turtles were recovered, but the area is known as a sanctuary to hawksbill turtles.
Philippine laws strictly prohibit the killing or selling of sea turtles, but for scientific, education or personal purposes or propagation and are covered by a special permit.
Dried turtle meat and other aquatic animals are considered a delicacy in Muslim provinces in the southern Philippines, and turtle shells are also being sold as souvenirs. Tawi-Tawi is one of five provinces under the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)
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