DENR goes after turtle-eating Korean missionaries

DAVAO CITY, Philippines  – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to file charges against officials and members of a Korean missionary group who were reported to have butchered and eaten a sea-green turtle while on board a vessel docked here.

The DENR said Hannah Parks, owner of M/V Hannah II, and the other missionaries of the Korea-based Hannah International Mobilization, who are with her in the trip here until May, violated Republic Act 9147 or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.

The International Union on the Conservation of Nature has declared the sea-green turtle as endangered.

Parks, in an earlier press conference, admitted to have butchered and eaten the sea-green turtle, which she said was a gift to them from the president of Palau prior to their trip here.

The incident was discovered after a crew of TV5 saw inedible parts of the head and flippers of a sea-green turtle (Chelonia mydas) thrown in a garbage bin in the vicinity of the Sta. Ana pier where the M/V Hannah II was docked.

The DENR has requested the TV5 management to execute an affidavit with regards to the incident, as two more witnesses are required to prove that indeed the Korean missionaries were the ones who dumped the turtle parts.

Mayor Sara Duterte earlier expressed dismay over the incident and even urged a deeper investigation into it.

Duterte said an apology on the part of Parks was not enough to justify the act of eating the turtle.

Local officials have even pushed that the Korean missionaries be declared persona non grata.