DA, NMIS inspect big Chinese stores in Quirino Avenue
DA, NMIS inspect big Chinese stores in Quirino Avenue
Transcript
00:00 Hacking on tips of an alleged distribution of imported and hot meats, agent of the National
00:05 Meat Inspection Service and the Department of Agriculture swooped down on a triumvirate
00:09 of Chinese-owned warehouses in Paranaque City dealing imported and hot meat from China.
00:15 And as Claes L. Pordilia found out, a number of meat dealers are in cahoots with bad actors
00:20 in government and private people who knowingly and illegally provide photocopies of already
00:25 approved certificates and clearances to their customers who show them to customs examiners
00:31 and other government agency inspectors only to get busted thereafter.
00:39 Agents of the National Meat Inspection Service and the Department of Agriculture Inspectorate
00:44 and Enforcement Unit went to Paranaque City earlier this morning.
00:49 To inspect big Chinese stores located along Carino Avenue in Barangay Tambo.
00:56 Authorities were greeted by hundreds of kilos of imported meat products in the store.
01:03 Some gyupsal or barbeque belly, various pork, chicken, beef and frozen products from China
01:09 were discovered.
01:10 Some of which already expired.
01:12 "All poultry products and pork products from China are prohibited in the Philippines.
01:20 Because they can be contagious, like ESF and bird flu.
01:26 It's a tick disease that affects humans.
01:30 If it continues to enter, chances are we can get infected.
01:35 ESF continues to affect us.
01:37 It has a big impact on our economy and the local industry."
01:41 The authorities immediately confiscated the illegal meat products.
01:46 But one of the crew insisted they have a National Meat Inspection Certificate.
01:51 "They said that they have a certificate for every meat they buy.
01:58 Here I am.
01:59 I'm the one who got it."
02:05 Upon checking the document, undocumented meat products were also seized from two other
02:25 Chinese stores in the same area.
02:28 In another operation in a mall along Gestado Macapagal Boulevard, two Chinese stores were
02:34 also found selling undocumented meat products from China.
02:39 Like this frozen meat frogs, items which are strictly prohibited and not considered animal
02:45 food by the NMIS.
02:47 The store owner argued, "The fact that your items here, it is for sale.
03:06 You are violating the law."
03:10 According to the NMIS, it found similar markings and brands of the products seized in their
03:15 consecutive operations in Binangonan, Bulacan and other parts of Metro Manila.
03:21 That is why the DA suspects, "We traced that there is a group that is really
03:31 trying to steal from us.
03:48 The attempt to distribute confiscated meat amounting to P250,000 was condemned and the
03:54 owners will be charged for violation of the Food Safety and National Meat Inspection Code.
04:00 Kaleza Pardilia for the Nation.