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By William B. Depasupil Reporter
THE Bureau of Customs (BoC) is
implementing a 100 percent examination of all refrigerated container
vans to stop the entry of smuggled meat, poultry and vegetable
products.
Customs Commissioner Napoleon
Morales issued the order on recommendation of the Presidential
Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) chief, Undersecretary Antonio Villar.
“This is necessary to preempt
unscrupulous importers who will take advantage of the high demand of
meat, poultry and vegetables products in the next three months
because of the coming Christmas season,” Villar told reporters on
Wednesday.
The National Federation of Hog
Farmers, Inc. (NFHFI), an umbrella organization of 48 hog farmers
associations, earlier raised the alarm in a letter sent to the PASG.
Villar said the hog farmers
wanted a closer scrutiny of all refrigerated container vans as these
smuggled imported products do not only deprive the government of
much needed revenues and affect local producers, but also put at
risk the health and safety of the consumers.
“These illegally imported meat
and poultry products that enter the country without the veterinary
quarantine clearance could be carriers of diseases like FMD
(foot-and-mouth disease) for pork and avian flu for chicken,”
Villar pointed out.
He explained that the said
products fall under the category of regulated importations or need
prior permit from the Department of Agriculture and other concerned
agencies prior to importation.
President Gloria Arroyo earlier
instructed Villar to protect the interest of local agricultural
producers from rampant smuggling of rice, sugar, onions, garlic and
poultry products.
Customs Commissioner Napoleon
Morales, for his part, said that aside from refrigerated vans, he
also ordered that all regular containers should pass the x-ray
machine to ensure that what’s inside the vans is the same as what
was declared.
“Pork smugglers make a lot of
money because they get it very cheap from the source. That’s why
local produce could not compete,” Morales said.
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