Customs chief dismayed by hog raisers' accusations

MANILA, Philippines - Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon yesterday said he was disappointed with the continued accusations that the bureau has done nothing to address the pork and poultry smuggling problem in the country.

Biazon said he is dismayed that even after he attended the Hog Raisers Convention in Cebu last Friday and explained the present situation at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) as well as the actions they have undertaken to address the smuggling problem, there are still those who accuse them of inaction.

“When I checked for updates this morning, I was somewhat disappointed. There seems to be some hog raisers who are not convinced that we are doing something and would do something to address the problem. I find it disappointing for people to say that nothing concrete was offered,” said Biazon.

He explained that he had long asked them “to assign industry experts at the BOC to help in assessing and scrutinizing the importations, but up to now they have not sent their representatives.”

“Actually, I made this offer to them months ago during our first dialogue and they failed to act on it and now they come here and say that we are doing nothing, that we have not taken concrete steps. That is disappointing,” he added.

Biazon said they have also ordered the transfer of the Interim Customs Accreditation and Registration Unit (ICARE) to the bureau’s Intelligence Group (IG) to weed out bogus importers.

“Since there are front companies, one solution is to ensure that the accreditation process has a higher level of integrity. Our IG would conduct an appropriate background check and purge the list of accredited importers and consignees,” Biazon said.

He has also ordered all their operating units to closely monitor and/or conduct 100 percent examination on all frozen food importations and to review the records of the country’s past frozen meat importations.

“We are now going through the past records of importations of the country’s top 10 food importers to check whether all their importations were covered with the required import permits from the Department of Agriculture (DA), or whether these importers did not import beyond the approved volume granted to them by the DA,” the Customs chief said.

He also pointed out that he has only been with the bureau for nine months and not 18 months as earlier hinted by some of his critics.

As to allegations that pork and chicken traders have lost P8.5 billion, Biazon said they have yet to check their records.