The Chinese Pawikan Poachers: 3 years ago today

Three years ago today, I posted the following on Facebook:

“It was my first time to see a turtle more than a meter long.. seeing hundreds of them (some alive, many dead) is an unprecedented sight for me. It is very painful and disturbing to see them butchered for profit by these people without compassion and conscience, but the painful part is when you see these creatures cry.”

“Whatever the reason for their tears to flow, I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. For me, they are crying their emotions out. they are survivors but many of their families are dead, killed heartlessly and in a very brutal manner. Imagine yourself surviving a massacre???”

Hundreds of the dead Pawikan or Seaturtles were recovered. What a loss!

These maritime police personnel are happy to release this big Pawikan back to its natural habitat.

Related: Stealing from their own backyard: Story of a Pawikan poacher

Chinese poachers

That was 3 years ago, when the PNP Maritime Group’s then Special Boat Unit (SBU) managed to follow an intelligence report about the blatant and massive poaching operations by Chinese fishermen in the coastal waters of Palawan.

The Maritime Police operatives chanced upon a big wooden speedboat locally known as “Jungkong”, the maritime police intelligence officers managed to discreetly follow the boat that eventually led them in the vicinity of Hasa-hasa shoal (Half moon shoal).

After which, they saw at least 3 foreign-looking vessels, that when approached suspiciously sped and fled away after realizing that they are Philippine’s maritime police operatives on a seaborne patrol.

As a result, the incident led to a boat chase, and since the police were outnumbered, they caught the “Junkung” and one foreign vessel which was later identified as a Hainan-based fishing boat.

*The Police officers were very happy to release the survivors back into the wild. The foreigner is a supporter of the unit’s environmental efforts, and has facilitated many US-funded project.*

*Sea turtle Carapace or shell was treated with chemicals such as formaldehyde and dried to be later sold to Chinese collectors who associate turtles to vitality.*

The inventory later revealed the horrors that the environmentalists had only thought in their nightmares. But the morbid truth is just like that – truth, a very heart-breaking truth. 558 beautiful Sea turtles, some 100 years old, either killed, butchered or very weak.

The Chinese claimed that the newly built islands in the West Philippine Sea and in the South China Sea, in general, are there as Environmental and weather observation stations.

But how ironic it is that they have to destroy the environment to monitor it?

Likewise, multiple sources revealed that the Chinese incursions into our territory are sanctioned by the Chinese government themselves.

That is to bolster their insane claims in the West Philippine Sea and to provide for their citizen’s ever-growing food needs.

In the end, it is our nation’s sovereignty, national integrity and food security that is at stake because of the Chinese encroachment to our own legal territory.

Chinese Poachers Jailed

The Chinese poachers who did this horrendous environmental crime were later sentenced and jailed in Palawan as reported in this report: PALAWAN: 9 CHINESE POACHERS CONVICTED DESPITE CHINA’S WARNING.

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