PASG seizes P100-M 'hot meat,' Peking duck

The Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), in coordination with the Valenzuela City government, raided three cold storage facilities in Barangay Maysan yesterday and seized P100 million worth of meat, poultry, and seafood products.

Marither Menia, Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian’s public information officer, said law enforcers raided the cold storage facilities of Solivar Trading at around 10 a.m.

The team found frozen Peking ducks, rice ducks, geese, fish fillets, giant squids and seafood balls from China; and frozen pork and beef products from Brazil.

PASG chief Antonio Villar Jr. said the confiscated products “appeared ready for disposal” but he expressed alarm over the possible consequences of the “unchecked meat delicacies for their possible toxic chemical contents or presence of avian flu virus.”

He said the imported products should have passed the inspection of the Bureau of Food and Drugs, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the National Meat Inspection Service.

Villar said officials of Solivar Trading, owned by Wilson Ho, failed to present “valid import documents” during the operation.

PASG was readying charges against Ho, who was not around during the raid. – Pete Laude, Paolo Romero