DENR releases new manual to counter ‘wildlife crime’

A Wildlife Law Enforcement Manual of Operations (WLEMO) was released last week, which is expected to be instrumental in “lodging airtight cases in court and scoring convictions against wildlife criminals," the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said this weekend. DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje has issued Memorandum Circular 2010-17 calling for the adoption of the new manual, instructing wildlife enforcement officers (WEO) to strictly learn and follow it “by heart." The WLEMO "shall serve as guide in the enforcement of Republic Act No. 9147 or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001," said Paje. The country’s 1,076 WEOs are authorized to seize illegally collected, possessed and traded wildlife resources, and to arrest without warrant any person who has committed any of the offenses enumerated in RA 9147, stated the DENR. The new manual “will help reduce delay in the trial and prosecution of offenders as it will vastly improve the quality of evidence-gathering for cases presented to the prosecutors," said Paje. The DENR cited instances of “wildlife crime cases being thrown out of the courtroom or dismissed by state prosecutors due to ‘inadmissibility’ or ‘weak evidence,’ all because of small but costly procedural lapses made by wildlife officers during an arrest or apprehension." From over 45 recorded incidences of illegal collection, possession, transport and trade of wildlife species between January 2007 and May 2010, only five cases had been fully documented and filed in court, according to Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the DENR’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) The WLEMO will be distributed nationwide through the PAWB and its 16 regional offices. In developing the new manual, the DENR obtained inputs from 11 government entities of six national agencies involved in the enforcement and prosecution of wildlife cases, namely:

• Department of Justice (Office of the State Prosecutor and National Bureau of Investigation);
• Department of Finance (Bureau of Customs), Department of Interior and Local Government (Philippine National Police and Local Government Units);
• Department of National Defense (Armed Forces of the Philippines);
• Department of Transportation and Communication (Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Ports Authority and Manila International Airport Authority);
• Department of Agriculture (bureaus of Plant Industry, and Fisheries & Aquatic Resources).

The manual is divided into three parts. The first part details relevant wildlife policies implemented by the DENR, while the second part tackles the protocols for the processing of environmental cases, from investigation to arrest to seizure of illegal items. The third part reviews standard monitoring, reporting and documentary forms to facilitate the prosecution of wildlife-related cases. The WLEMO also contains photos of all threatened wildlife species that are subject for confiscation, as well as the directory of all WEOs. — LRS/VS, GMANews.TV