4 caught with 300 kilos of double-dead chicken

MANILA, Philippines – Four people were arrested Wednesday for distributing 300 kilos of double-dead chicken at a public market in Pasig City.

Eastern Police District (EPD) director Chief Superintendent Francisco Manalo identified the suspects as Abner Jesuitas, 40; Alberto Dayto, 61; Alquin Bautista, 18, and a certain Gener, a 17-year-old, all residents of Tanay, Rizal.

Manalo coordinated with the Pasig City meat inspection office (MIO) after a witness, Alkid Pineda, 32, reported that several men were distributing double-dead chicken at the Pasig Mega Market in Barangay Malinaw.

A joint team of police officers and MIO agents conducted a surveillance operation along Caruncho Avenue and monitored a parked Mazda van with license plate PTD-428 at about 6 p.m. The team accosted Dayto, the van’s driver, and he failed to present a “meat inspection permit” from the city government for the chicken meat.

The suspects told Manalo they bought the chicken from poultry raisers in Tanay, Rizal for P20 to P25 and sold them for P50 in the Pasig City Mega Market. They admitted that the chickens died at the height of typhoon Basyang last Tuesday and that they had been selling double-dead chicken for quite some time.

SPO1 Sandy Baybayon, of the EPD criminal investigation unit (CIU), filed charges of violation of the Consumer Act of the Philippines (Republic Act 7394) against the suspects before the Pasig City Prosecutor’s Office. 

The suspects are currently detained at the EPD annex building detention center.