THE Bureau of Customs on Monday turned over its stockpile of rhinoceros horns to the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The rhinoceros horns were seized by the BoC in September 2012 after they were discovered in a shipment from Maputo City in Mozambique at the Manila International Container Port. The shipment, valued at some P74 million in the black market, was declared as cashew nuts.
BMB Director Theresa Mundita Lim received the seized horns from the BoC, represented by its Environmental Protection Unit head Lt. Angelito Cruz.
Lim said the turnover of the seized rhino horns to the BMB is part of the Philippine commitment to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.
The CITES is an international treaty developed in 1973 to regulate commercial trade in certain wildlife species, including the critically endangered rhinoceros.
“We may not have rhinoceros in our country, but this does not mean we will allow others to use them and other such wildlife for unscrupulous gains and contribute to their extinction as a species,” Lim said.
Lim said the BMB would coordinate with the government of Mozambique for the possible return of the specimens.
“Should the African state refuse to accept them, they would be disposed of properly or possibly destroyed,” she said.
The BMB had been coordinating with the BoC for the turnover of the specimens since their seizure. The process was put on hold as the BoC management underwent some changes.
The rhinoceros population is listed under Appendix I of the CITES, which means that its international trade and that of its by-products are strictly prohibited.
CITES is an international agreement between governments to ensure that the survival of wild animals and plants is not threatened by international trade. The BMB is the CITES Management Authority for terrestrial species in the Philippines.
Republic Act No. 9147, also known as the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, designates the BMB’s Wildlife Rescue Center as depository of seized wildlife specimens, their derivatives or by-products.