PHILIPPINES
International Business Times
BY Amrutha Gayathri | September 27 2012
A Roman Catholic priest in the Philippines inadvertently prompted an investigation against himself after he offered advice for an article on the ivory trade in the National Geographic magazine on how to smuggle ivory statues.
The article with a section titled “How to Smuggle Ivory” has Monsignor Cristobal Garcia instructing readers on the best way to smuggle an ivory statue to the U.S. It is to “wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it. So it looks sh**ty with blood. This is how it is done.”
Garcia also gave the reporter, phone numbers, location and names of his favorite ivory carvers, all in Manila, along with advice on whom to go to for high volume, whose wife overcharges and who doesn’t meet the deadlines.
The article says Garcia is one of the best-known ivory collectors in the Philippines and was dismissed from service at St. Dominic’s of Los Angeles in the mid-1980s for sexually abusing an altar boy in his early teens.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.