AT LEAST seven stingrays were confiscated by members of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) in Mandaue City’s public market early Wednesday.
The confiscated stingrays weighed at least nine kilos and projected to have a market value of P1,000.
Penro’s head of Environmental Law Enforcement Division, lawyer Rhea Yray, said personnel from Penro’s Coastal Law Enforcement chanced upon Modista Patindol displaying rays at her stall at 3 a.m. of Wednesday.
“Atong enforcer didto nangita og namaligya kay mopalit siya (Our enforcer acted as buyer, and chanced upon the seller of the hot meat),” she said.
Yray said Patindol violated Provincial Ordinance 2015-21 which prohibits the transporting and selling of endangered species, such as stingrays.
As penalty, Patindol has to pay P1,000 for every kilo of the seized stingrays. She will also face an administrative case at the Provincial Aquatic Resources Adjudication Board (Parab).
It will be the second administrative case filed against violators of the provincial ordinance, Yray added.
“I hukom na gyod na siya after na mainvestigate, ug naa natay evidence ato na dayon i-endorse sa Parab. Ang Parab na ang adjudicatory board ang mo decide,” she said.
(She will be charged after the investigation. Once we have the evidence, we will endorse it to the Parab. The Parab, as adjudicatory board will decide).
Yray said they have yet to identify the source of the hot meat.
The seized rays are now being buried in the Capitol’s nursery area near the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas along M.Velez St. in Cebu City.