After all this time, government agencies have finally made a decision about the millions of kilos of rotting meat left at the Manila port.
READ: 3.9 million kilos of meat rotting at Manila port
“Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock Jose Reano told the Senate that the decision reached by the Bureau of Animal Industry, in consultation with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is to bury some 3.9 million kilos of meat abandoned at Manila port since the shipment entered the country in Dec 2014,” reports Jorge Cariño on ABs-CBNnews.com.
Reano explained that “the meat, stocked in refrigerated vans in the port, will be unplugged to thaw and decompose before bringing it to a landfill.”
“Mas maigi po na bulukin na muna bago dalhin sa landfill (It’s best if the meat is allowed to further decompose before it’s brought to the landfill),” said Reano. The purpose of this is to “deter potential diggers from trying to salvage the meat.”
The report revealed that in Dec 2014, there had actually been five million kilos of meat in 203 refrigerated vans at the Manila International Container Port. The containers were held due to the absence of required permit from the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS).
An earlier report indicated that the consignees have “abandoned the meat loaded in refrigerated vans to avoid payment of demurrage and storage fees.”
However, in 2015, the number of container vans holding the meat went down to 158. The report didn’t explain what happened to the 45 other container vans. Collectively, the contents of the remaining vanns was 3.9 kilos of meat.
The report noted: “At a hearing of the Senate Committee of Agriculture and Food chaired by Senator Cynthia Villar, the remaining shipment came up in the discussion while the topic of smuggled pork was being discussed.”
In an ambush interview, Villar pointed out: “There’s something wrong in the tariff system, which encourages technical smuggling. We also don’t have strict food safety rules in place.”
