Hold order issued vs Chinese poachers

Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. issued yesterday a hold-departure order against 30 Chinese fishermen accused of poaching in waters off Palawan.

The Chinese were arrested last December and detained at the Palawan provincial jail after the Navy caught them within the Tubbataha Reef Natural Park.

Fernandez said he signed the order last Feb. 15 following a directive from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to prevent the 30 Chinese from evading trial. There was no court order to stop the Chinese from leaving the country.

The Chinese were charged with violating the Fisheries Code and the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act before the Puerto Princesa Regional Trial Court and Municipal Trial Court in Roxas – Cagayancillo in Palawan.

Dem Escoto, a lawyer of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said 32 other Chinese crewmen were involved in the King King Hai case and Hoi Wan case in violation of Republic Act 8550, the Fisheries Code of the Philippines, and Republic Act 7586, the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act.

"Not all the Chinese fishermen were included in the issued hold departure order because some of them were still in jail at the time when the petition for the hold order was submitted," he said.

"Many of them eventually managed to post bail and be out of jail.

Anyway, those that were not covered by this hold order are included in a pending hold order petition. So hopefully, eventually, all of them would be barred from leaving the country."

Escoto said that the BFAR will start today administrative hearings on three poaching cases involving the 32 Chinese crewmen pending in Palawan courts.

The BFAR will require the Chinese to attend the hearings, which would determine the imposition of administrative penalties under Republic Act 8550, he added.

Escoto said they have already sent notices of hearing to all the accused in the Hoi Wan case, King King Hai case, and Vessel No. 2880 (Kwok Wai Ming case), and that all of them have agreed to participate in the hearings.

"The administrative penalty is aside from the penalty, which the court would determine when the cases are resolved," he said.

The Navy and Tubbataha rangers arrested the 30 Chinese fishermen aboard F/V Hoi Wan within TRNP on Dec. 21 last year.

The Chinese yielded at least 2,000 pieces of live assorted groupers and hundreds of the endangered Napoleon wrasses, locally known as Mameng;.

Earlier, authorities caught 24 Chinese aboard a nameless boat (Vessel No. 2880) in the vicinity of Mangsee Island, Balabac, Palawan on Oct. 21, 2006.

The crewmen yielded live and dead fish, which were tested to contain residues of chemical only found in dynamite.

On June 17, 2006, authorities arrested eight Chinese aboard the vessel F/B King King Hai near Mangsee Island, Balabac, Palawan. They yielded dead turtles.

The Chinese were charged with violations of RA 8550 on poaching, taking and gathering of endangered species, and fishing through explosives, noxious or poisonous substance, Republic Act 7586, and Republic Act 9147, the Wildlife Act.

Under the law, poachers will be imprisoned and fined up to $100,000, and their fishing vessel and equipment seized.

Militant and environmentalist groups have been pushing for the issuance of a hold order against the Chinese, who were temporarily freed last month after they posted bail.

The Chinese were arrested on Dec. 21 aboard their fishing vessel which was intercepted by the Navy just 1.5 miles from the Tubbataha Reef.

The United Nations has declared Tubbataha as a World Heritage Site. — Edu Punay, Katherine Adraneda