Tarlac hunters risk lives for snakes -1

RESTITUTO Quiambao of Barangay

San Lorenzo in Concepcion, Tarlac,

was a vegetable vendor in the public

market before he turned to hunting

and selling snakes for a living.

Quiambao, 59, said he was earning more as a snake hunter than

a hawker of Baguio-grown vegetables.

''I used to earn P200 a day. Now I earn more than that--as much

as P1,000 daily,'' he said.

He was quick to add that as a snake hunter, he was no longer at

the mercy of loan sharks to whom much of his earnings from

selling vegetables went.

''I don't need to loan money to grow (in) my business. I only

bank on sheer guts and talent,'' he said.

Like Quiambao, most of Tarlac's more than 100 snake hunters

are either former farmers or street vendors who found their new

means of livelihood more lucrative.

When we met Quiambao at a snake shop on the

Concepcion-Magalang Road in Barangay San Francisco in

Concepcion, he was lugging a fish net containing three live

Philippine spitting cobras (Naja-naja philippinensis).

The Philippine spitting cobra is classified by the Department of

Environment and Natural Resources as an endangered species.

Personnel from the DENR swooped down on a snake specialty

restaurant in Manila's Malate District last week and confiscated

more than 70 live Philippine cobras.

The seizure, reports said, was the biggest haul of the DENR in

its campaign to stop poaching of Philippine cobras.

Lucrative trade

Quaimbao dropped his day's harvest onto a weighing scale not

far from a snake cage. He untied the pouch and carefully shook

its contents into the cage.

Owners of snake shops in Concepcion buy live cobras, known

locally as camulalu or camamalu, at P200 a kilo but sell these at

more than twice their buying price, mostly to Chinese and

Korean restaurant owners in Manila.

Larry Bulanadi, a snake hunter who has been known as ''Cobra

King of the Philippines'' years ago when he won in a noontime

game show's ''Super Pinoy'' contest, owns a snake shop in

Concepcion.

His wife Emily has been managing the shop since Bulanadi

started working at the Serpentanum Anti-Venom and Vaccine

Production Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He was so famous as a snake hunter that Saudi Arabia's King

Fahd himself sent for him, shopkeeper Mercy Santos told the

INQUIRER.

Taped across a bamboo divider inside the shop was a

photograph showing Bulanadi standing unharmed while

surrounded by 38 live Philippine cobras.

The shop also sells snake bile, blood, meat, oil and penis as

these fetch higher prices.

A small plastic sachet containing snake bile, for example, costs

P200.

Although illegal under the Convention on International Trade of

Endangered Species and under Presidential Decree No. 705,

buying and selling of Philippine cobras persist because snake

dishes are believed to cure a variety of illnesses and are

considered to be an aphrodisiac.

The bile is said to neutralize body toxin, while the blood

improves eyesight. Cobra meat cures skin problems, the oil

soothes asthma, and the penis ''possesses aphrodisiac

characteristics,'' according to snake shop owners.

Cobras are also dried until these become brittle. These are then

pulverized and made into pills.

When taken, according to a brochure from the snake shop, the

pills serve as a 'no-side effect' aphrodisiac, a natural vitamin for

extra energy, an appetizer, and a pain and swelling reliever.

The pills are also touted to soothe asthma, stop bedwetting of

children, cure common skin diseases and help maintain the

sugar level of people afflicted with diabetes.

Preparation

During our one-hour stay in the shop, three cobras were bought

and slaughtered.

Except for a man in his early 30s, most of the buyers were

middle-aged professionals.

At least one admitted to trying the exotic snake dish on the

prodding of his wife.

Santos did the butchering of the snakes herself. ''I have been

doing this for a year now,'' she said.

A sign on a wall warns that while a snake is being prepared,

buyers should stay away from it from a distance of twice the

snake's length.

But those in the shop pressed closer instead to watch Santos

prepare the snake.

She first clipped the snake's mouth to a wooden post and

opened up its belly with a pair of scissors. She removed a sac

containing the snake's bile, which she gave to a male buyer. The

man hesitated before finally swallowing it.

Santos drained the snake of its blood before skinning it and

cutting off its head.

''One out of 100 snake deliveries is a King Cobra, which

measures about 16 feet,'' she said. ''The last time we had one, we

sold it for P10,000.''

Quiambao, the oldest snake hunter in Tarlac, said danger lurked

at every step of his trade.

But being bitten by a snake only once in his eight-year career

was a point of pride.

''It was an accident. But it was never repeated. In the past, we

did not remove the fangs of the snakes we caught. Now we

have to remove these for our safety,'' he said, adding that for

that one mistake his family had to shell out P10,000 for his

hospitalization.

''We were lucky then because Tarlac hospitals had enough

supplies of anti-venom. The medicine is very scarce now,'' he

said.

He also dismissed the myth that snake hunters were immune to

snake venom. ''We are taking extra precautions because we are

not immune to snake bites,'' he said.

Their usual hunting grounds were the farms of Tarlac, Nueva

Ecija and Isabela.

''Our life is at stake because of this job. Although we only rest

on Sundays, I am happy because I was able to build my house.

My companion was able to buy a new motorcycle,'' he said.