Diani Chan - she's gone from a plant vendor of little renown in San Roman village to a national figure - conflated in controversy with the Prime Minister. That's after he called a forestry officer to immediately cease the confiscation of her CITES listed plants back in early April. That was actually 6 weeks ago - and there was no recurrence, in fact, no conflict at all when she brought in another truck full of plants yesterday.
And that's because reports say that this Mexican truck with a cargo of approximately 5,000 to 7,000 plants drove right through without even having to be opened for inspection at the border. Reports say it proceeded directly to Diani Chan's business, "Botanicals By Roselyn" where it unloaded.
Indeed reports tell us that - presumably - to smooth the way for Chan's imports, Forestry's role in vetting and inspecting plants was reduced. A new procedure developed earlier this month says that BAHA will handle the approvals for all live plant imports - and send it over to Forestry for vetting only if there are plants that require a forestry permit.
But Forestry only has a few working days to review and get this back to BAHA who then takes over the process - which includes inspection at the point of entry. Again our sources say that didn't happen with yesterday's shipment. Tonight, the Chairman of BAHA, Hugh O'Brien told us that the shipment was, in fact, "properly inspected by BAHA...all certifications were in order." He adds that BAHA "scratched off 2 groups of orchids, the bromeliads as she could not finalize CITES certification from Mexico in time." O'Brien also noted "It's because everything was in order that it went so smoothly." We reached out to Diani Chan for comment but she has not responded.
Critics say these new regulations are tailored to protect this importer - but proponents say it is simply to cut down red tape that acts as a fetter on all plant importers.
We reached out to the Minister with responsibility for Forestry, Orlando Habet, but up to news time he had not responded.
