P32-M smuggled pork seized

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) announced yesterday the confiscation of P32 million worth of smuggled frozen pork at the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said operatives of the bureau’s Intelligence and Enforcement Group (IIG) seized the imported meat after the shipment was wrongfully declared as "frozen fish, giant squid and mackerel."

The frozen pork arrived in 10 containers under three separate shipments that arrived at the MICP from China.

"Smugglers now resort to misdeclaration of shipments because they certainly cannot pass through the regular importation process. But what they don’t realize is that we also have intensified our measures against illegal importation so there is no way for them to get away with it," the Customs chief said.

Morales said importers are doing this because of government’s restrictions on the importation of meat products from China due to the reported foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu.

It can be recalled that the BOC, in coordination with police, earlier seized several containers of frozen pork from China that were also wrongfully declared as frozen mackerel.

The BOC chief said they are preparing smuggling charges against owners of the shipments. He added that the Bureau of Animal Industry and the Bureau of Quarantine have recommended the disposal of the seized shipments.

"We will dispose of these imported meats by either burying them or sending them back to China," stressed Morales.

Morales commended the bureau officers and agents who helped the interception of the shipments, namely: IIG director Jairus Paguntalan, intelligence division chief Fernandin Tuason, MICP district supervisor Antonio Kwek Jr., area supervisor Allan Moreno and special agents Edgardo Sangil and Elias Grecia.