Sen. Cynthia Villar urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to immediately destroy some 3.9 million kilograms of meat abandoned at the Manila port.
Citing reports, Villar said the 5 million kg of meat, which include pork jowls, bellies, diaphragm and belly, in 203 refrigerated vans have been stationed at the Manila International Container Port since December 2014. The container vans were held due to the absence of the required permit from the National Meat Inspection Service.
Last year the number of vans went down to 158, which contain 3.9 million kg of frozen meat.
“The presence of almost 4 million kg of meat at the port after a year is already creating anxiety among the public. There is no assurance that unscrupulous and enterprising parties will be prevented from selling them,” Villar said in a statement,
“If we are serious in our drive to improve food-safety levels in the country, we should dispose this immediately and not wait anymore for the consignees to appear. Clearly, they have abandoned the meat to rot,” she added.
Villar, chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Food, noted that the refrigerated vans continue to use electricity. It is also unclear who will pay for the disposal of the expired meat, which entails extraordinary expense. The consignees have abandoned the containers to avoid payment of demurrage and storage fees.
According to experts, as long as frozen meat shows no signs of thawing, it will be very difficult for consumers to tell fresh meat from bad. When meat is moved under poor conditions or repeatedly thawed, it could cause serious threat to health when consumed.
Although cooking spoiled meat at high temperature kills some bacteria, toxins that can cause food-borne illnesses, such as diarrhea, fever and intestinal problems, are not eliminated.
Industry sources said some vans were allowed to leave port premises because the consignees were able to present a certificate assuring these are fit for human consumption. The consignees are Lean Pasture Trading, Lucky Sisters Meat Trading and Jcore Enterprises.
Villar also expressed dismay that meat smuggling continues to thrive, with P8.8 billion of smuggled pork alone entering the country in 2014.
The meat came from various countries, namely, the US, Canada, Belgium and other European countries. Smugglers misdeclared imported frozen meat as fats, skin, offal and deboned in order to pay only 5 percent in duties and taxes, instead of 30 percent to 40 percent. The misdeclaration results in about P1 million in revenue losses per container.