FARM groups Wednesday hailed the refusal of the Bureau of Customs to release about 4 million kilos of allegedly expired pig meat, but they also called for the swift prosecution of the importers and for the cargoes to be condemned.
The Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) commended the BOC for working with the umbrella group to identify and continue to hold 158 containers that were previously confiscated because of lack of proper documents. Sinag groups at least 30 organizations of farmers, agribusiness operators and party-list groups.
Sinag chair Rosendo So said in an interview these containers were part of almost 203 containers that his group had earlier pinned as carrying “contaminated imported pork meat.”
“We called the attention of Deputy Customs Commissioner Jessie Dellosa in locating these containers and we are happy he was able to do so despite pressures for the release of these contaminated imported meat,” said So.
“If not for our sources on the ground, these containers could have easily slipped out of the BOC premises as importers were said to have ‘secured’ clearances and demanded the authorities to release these containers,” So added.
So said both the BOC and the Department of Agriculture must explain how and why these containers were still languishing at the port even with questionable documents.
So noted some of the containers were dated as far back as January 2014, which showed that the contents should be condemned as no longer fit for human consumption.
“Who facilitated the landing of these contraband that almost got spirited out of the port to the retail markets?” he said.
So also raised concern about recent reports of “raids” in wet markets in Manila and as far as Pangasinan.
“These raids are merely token efforts by the government as there is no way of knowing the real importer-traders from whom the expired meat came,” he said. “How much of the apprehended meat could have come from these 203 containers?”