A Philippine wildlife officer is on the run after being accused of stealing about US$80,000 (NT$2.6 million) worth of confiscated ivory that he was meant to be keeping watch over, a government bureau said last week.
The Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau employee allegedly replaced the elephant tusks, which were impounded after being illegally shipped into the country, with plastic pipes covered with plaster in a bid to cover his tracks.
His colleagues initially became suspicious of him after he started spending lavishly, the head of the bureau’s wildlife division, Josie de Leon, told AFP.
“Somebody had observed that this guy had lots of money. So we ... checked our treasures,” de Leon said.
When his colleagues checked on the ivory that was meant to be in a government storeroom, they discovered 794kg of tusks with a street value of about US$80,000 were missing, de Leon said.
De Leon said the suspect in the robbery was the agency’s protected areas superintendent, but she declined to give his name.
The suspect vanished on Feb. 26, the day of the inspection, she said, adding that law-enforcement agencies had been asked to track him down.
The missing tusks were part of a batch confiscated at a Philippine port in June last year.
A Tanzanian delegation is due to arrive in Manila next week to check if the ivory originated from their country and to see if it should be brought back.
Wildlife experts say 38,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks out of a total estimated population of half a million.
Ivory tusks are usually carved into religious images, ornaments and mahjong tiles in Asia.(AFP)
菲律賓某政府單位上週表示，一名負責看管扣押品的野生動物官員疑似監守自盜，竊走價值約八萬美元（新台幣兩百六十萬元）的象牙後逃逸。
據傳，政府保護區及野生動物管理局這名雇員為了掩人耳目，用包覆石膏的塑膠管來掉包查獲的走私進口象牙。
該局野生動物科科長蕎西•李奧向法新社表示，因為他出手闊綽起來，同事才開始懷疑他。
李奧說：「有人發現這傢伙手頭很寬裕，所以我們...清查了局內的珍藏。」
李奧表示，同事要清點存放在儲藏室內的象牙時，發現黑市價格約八萬美元的七百九十四公斤象牙竟不翼而飛。
李奧說，犯下這起竊盜案的嫌犯是該局保護區科負責人，不過她拒絕透露嫌犯姓名。
她還說，上個月二十六日進行清點時，嫌疑人就不見蹤影。該執法單位已被要求追緝他到案。
這批不翼而飛的象牙是去年六月在菲律賓某港口遭扣押的象牙之一。
坦尚尼亞代表團下週將抵達馬尼拉，了解這些象牙是否源自該國及應否運回等情況。
野生動物專家表示，總數約五十萬的非洲象，每年都有三萬八千頭因象牙而被殺害。在亞洲，象牙常被拿來雕成神像、裝飾品及麻將牌。（法新社╱翻譯：林倩如）
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