Old butchers disallowed in city slaughterhouses

CEBU, Philippines - Twelve butchers at the Cebu City Abattoir were no longer allowed to continue to report for work since Thursday last week after the city government started the strict implementation of the City Ordinance 2189 otherwise known as the Revised Meat for Public Consumption Regulatory Ordinance.

City abattoir chief Alice Utlang said the affected butchers have already reached the retirement age of 60.

Under the ordinance, all workers at the slaughterhouses should not be less than 18 years old or more than 60 years old.

Utlang explained that the city government is just doing a precautionary measure to prevent a similar incident last year, wherein an old butcher got slid at the slaughter area, from happening again.

According to Utlang, most of these 12 butchers are already more than 65 years old. She said it is already dangerous for them to work using sharp-bladed instruments.

The strict implementation of the ordinance somehow alarmed the barangay officials of Lorega-San Miguel where the slaughterhouse is situated because of the inaccurate information relayed to them.

In fact, the barangay council led by Capt. Fritzgerald Herrera sought the City Council’s intervention on the matter because the information they got was that Utlang did not anymore allow private vehicles to transport meat products to the public market.

The report received by the barangay officials of Lorega-San Miguel was that, the meat products will be transported only by the city-owned meat wagon from the slaughterhouse to any public market.

According to Herrera, such move might be disadvantageous to the meat dealers because the delivery of meat products might be delayed

Utlang, however, described the resolution of Barangay Lorega-San Miguel as “out of tune” because she never said that the private vehicles are banned from transporting meat products if they are accredited by her office.

At present, there are 19 different kinds of private vehicles that are accredited by the city to haul meat products from the slaughterhouses to the markets.

Utlang said the accreditation of vehicles is also provided under section 14 of the ordinance.

“This is to ensure the proper handling of carcasses being delivered to public markets,” Utlang said. (FREEMAN)