The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will look into whether 12 Chinese aboard a fishing vessel that ran aground at Tubbataha Reef last week had outside help in procuring boxes of frozen anteaters found aboard the ship.
Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau director Theresa Mundita Lim said anteaters are considered an endangered species in the Philippines, and the Chinese may be charged for violating the Wildlife Resources and Conservation Act if the anteaters are found to have been taken in the Philippines.
Anteaters are valued as medicine or as delicacies among some Chinese.
The 400 boxes of anteaters were found aboard the fishing vessel that ran aground at Tubbataha last April 8.
The 12 Chinese had been arrested and detained at the Palawan Provincial Jail after being charged for poaching and trying to bribe park rangers.
But Philippine intelligence authorities are also looking into the possibility the 12 are spies because of their bearing and their relatively smooth complexion.
The April 8 grounding occurred three months after the minesweeper USS Guardian ran aground at Tubbataha Reef. The USS Guardian was cut up and removed from the reef last March 30. —KG, GMA News
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