Cebu City has become a haven for those selling shark and sting ray meat because even if vendors were caught red handed, city inspectors were powerless and could not make arrest.
City Veterinarian Dr. Alice Utlang said personnel from the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries (DVMF) caught vendors at the public market in Barangay Pasil selling shark and sting ray meat but they could not be arrested since the city has no ordinance that bans the sale, transport and slaughter of endangered species such as sharks and sting rays.
Utlang said that during a DVMF- Fisheries Division inspection in Pasil market on Thursday night, inspectors even caught some vendors chopping shark meat. Since they have no authority to make arrests, Utlang said that all they could do was to report the incident to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
She said they first sent a report to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources but were referred to the BFAR and, so far, have not received any response yet from BFAR.
Josefina Flores, officer in charge of Fisheries Management Regulatory and Enforcement Division of BFAR, said they did not get the report from Utlang but even if they would, they still could not make an arrest or confiscate the shark or sting ray meat since the national ban only covered whale sharks and manta rays.
Under BFAR’s Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 193, the ban covers the “taking or catching, selling, purchasing and possessing, transporting and exporting of whale sharks and manta rays.”
Flores said they could only refer Utlang’s report to the Cebu provincial government since it was possible that the shark and sting ray meat found in Pasil were caught in Cebu province, which has an ordinance against the sale, transport and slaughter of sharks and sting rays.
Utlang said she also believed the meat came from Mandaue City and only sold in Cebu City.
She said she wrote a letter to the city council to recommend the passage of the ordinance similar to that of the province.
Councilor Alvin Arcilla, head of the council’s committee on agriculture, said he would want to meet with Utlang to discuss a draft ordinance.