Progress seen in fight vs smuggling of meat in PH

DAGUPAN CITY—Hog growers welcomed the Bureau of Customs’ move suspending the accreditation of two meat importers, who were found to have violated the government’s requirements on cold storage and warehouse facilities for their commodities.

Rosendo So, director of Swine Development Council, said information received by his group also showed irregularities committed by some importers as several of these firms’ business addresses turned out to be sari-sari (variety) stores and condominium units.

“Where do those meat importers, who bring into the country hundreds of tons of meat, keep them?” said So, also chair of party-list group Abono.

The BOC earlier suspended the accreditation of Batoy Trading and Sacrecoure Commercial. Batoy Trading is one of the top 10 importers of fat, offal, skin and rind, and other meat products in the country, the BOC said.

In a statement, Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon said the accreditation of 25 importers of other commodities was also suspended.

So said there are more unscrupulous meat importers whose accreditation should be revoked or suspended.

Biazon said those involved in smuggling would be blacklisted by the BOC. “This should serve as a warning to unscrupulous traders and importers engaged in technical smuggling or misdeclaration of their importation,” he said.

In a separate statement, lawyer Rhea Gregorio, chief of the Interim Customs Accreditation Registration (Icare), said some of importers misrepresented themselves and failed to comply with legal requirements while others were charged with smuggling at the Department of Justice.

“They declared it in their applications but when we went to the addresses stated in their applications, we found no cold storage facilities,” said Gregorio.

Earlier, So called on the government to crack down on smuggling syndicates, saying disparities in the data of the United Nations and the Philippine government and records of the Department of Agriculture showed that more than P16 billion worth of pork had been smuggled into the country last year, depriving the government of billions of pesos in revenues.

Last month, the Dagupan City government seized 405 kilograms of frozen meat and meat products from five vendors in the public market after these were found to be improperly handled.

Dr. Michael Maramba, city veterinarian, said vendors violated rules on the handling of frozen and chilled meat, and meat products.

“These [confiscated meat products] were just on display tables. But these were supposed to be inside a chiller to maintain certain temperature,” he said. “We also found frozen meat kept under the vendors’ display tables, and [the products] were beginning to thaw.” Yolanda Sotelo, with a report from Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon