Is Selling Tuko Illegal ?

Tuko For Sale - Selling Tuko, Legal or Illegal ?

Is tuko trade legal ?

It's too good to be true - that the first thing that came into my mind as I had known the tuko trade here in our country, Philippines.

I never had imagine that the reptile with a funny image can really worth as much as hundreds of thousands of pesos. From the younger age, the only thing that I have known about tuko is that it has a special grip ability, where the "kapit tuko" came from.

Older people even said that even you shot it dead on a tree with an airgun, it will still hang up in there because of its special grip ability.

After that fact about this tuko, the next information I have known about them is that a 300 grams of a living tuko is worth 300 thousand pesos, can anyone believe that? Because I'm still having a hard time here.

Searching online, the tuko market obviously shows that it is a very active commerce on the country.

I saw on sulit.com.ph that a tokay gecko buyer or tuko buyer is looking for a tuko with a weigh of 200 to 400 grams, and he is buying it for 50,000,000 pesos. Take note, no typo in there, it is really 50 million pesos. That is the exact same thing that I told earlier that keeps me blowing away.

It is really too good to be true.

However, the DENR had issued a warning about the tuko trade on the country, saying that:

"The law expressly provides that the collection, trade or transport of geckos without appropriate permits from the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), which is under the DENR, is punishable by imprisonment of up to four years … ,"

This is according to the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources secretary Ramon J.P. Paje.

It seems that the government wants to protect the species that is about to extinct because of the animal's high tag price.

On the same note, Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau or PAWB, a section under DENR with its director Theresa Mundita Lim said that the agency has not issued any permits to anyone legalizing the sale and/or breeding of geckos for commercial purposes, nor for their collection from the wild.

The PAWB lists thirty four species of geckos distributed throughout the country, of which 26 are endemic or native to our country.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health - DOH also released and statement to defy the claims that the gecko or tuko can cure diseases like cancer, AIDS, asthma, tuberculosis, and impotence.

The statement released by the DOH refers the tuko trade as a "folkloric practice" and stresses that no scientific proofs can ensure that any part of gecko or tuko can miraculously cure the mention diseases.





Incoming search questions:
1.) Is tuko trade legal or illegal ?
2.) Is selling tuko or buying tuko is illegal ?
3.) Why tuko is so expensive ?
4.) What diseases can eating tuko cure ?
5.) What is the english of tuko ?