How do you like your eggs? Not stolen, definitely.
Local environment officials have filed complaints against medical workers from the Department of Health who were accused of smuggling marine turtle eggs from a protected wildlife sanctuary in Tawi-Tawi.
According to a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the team headed by provincial health officer Dr. Sangkula Laja allegedly shipped out 5,000 pieces of green turtle (Chelonia mydas) eggs hidden in five carton boxes and eventually distributed in plastic bags.
What did the doctor have to say for himself? Laja explained that the eggs were given by the locals to his team after they conducted a medical and dental mission from July 18 to 22 last year in the remote fishing towns.
“It is (customary for them) to give gifts such as eggs to guests visiting their island municipality,” Laja wrote in a letter to Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial.
Laja added that they were served boiled turtle eggs during their stay.
An unnamed witness, however, insisted that the eggs were not gifts but were bought by the medical workers from locals.
Ubial has forwarded the case to Environment Secretary Gina Lopez.
“May this matter be treated with compassion and forgiveness,” Ubial said.
Laja promised to “help preserve the natural resources of Tawi- Tawi.”
Under the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, poachers of endangered marine turtles and their eggs could face jail time of up to 6 years and fines of up to PHP500,000.
Reader Interactions