June 12, 2012

 

Filipino province ceases entry of frozen meat imports

The provincial government of Pangasinan, the Philippines, have stopped importing frozen meat, as a local law which bans the sale of frozen meat imports comes into force.

 

Officials of Urdaneta City in Pangasinan said that they are threshing out this week the adoption of Resolution 156-2012 seeking "to ban the sale of all imported frozen mean within the territorial jurisdiction of Urdaneta City.

 

"It has been the experience of most of our constituents that, more often than not, the sale of frozen meat in the markets of Urdaneta City, results in several diseases and infections among the consumers because of the frequent brownouts as a consequence of which is the contamination of bacteria in the said frozen meat," the proposal stressed.

 

"It is also the consensus of the buying public that it is safer to buy and eat fresh meat than frozen ones because they do not know whether these frozen meats being sold in the markets of Urdaneta City are properly refrigerated and kept frozen until they are sold," the resolution said.

 

On his part, Abono party-list chairman and Swine Development Council Director, Rosendo So, said that the move "only shows the Bureau of Customs is not doing its job to stop smuggling, or its personnel may be coddling the smugglers or unscrupulous importers and traders of these contrabands."

 

According to the statement received by The Manila Times, smugglers of meat flood Pangasinan, and deliver their contrabands at 1 a.m. in public markets, in Lingayen at 2 a.m. and San Carlos at 3 a.m.

 

Moreover, in a resolution 54-2012 approved last March 9, 2012, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Pangasinan also urged all local government units in the province "to strictly monitor the transport, storage and display of frozen and chilled meat and meat products."

 

"This move by the local government units to protect its citizens from the proliferation of frozen meat of dubious origin and safety, if enforced will help greatly in the fight against smuggled meat," said So.

 

On his part, Customs Commissioner, Ruffy Biazon, reiterated his call to the Hog Raisers Association of the Philippines to implement the agreement they have signed last April to assign industry experts to observe and monitor customs clearance procedures in order to ensure faithful compliance of meat importation regulations by personnel of the animal industry, National Meat Inspection Service and the bureau.

 

"This will finally solve their problem. This has worked with the Federation of Philippine Industries and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. And there is no reason why this will not work with the Hog Raisers Association," Biazon said.

 

Under the agreement, the hog raisers' representative are supposed to get involved in the inspection of incoming imported meat products by seeing to it that all requirements provided for under the law have been complied with.