At least three towns and Urdaneta City have started complying with the order by passing ordinances to effect the ban. And starting this week, the municipalities of Pozzorobio, Sison and San Nicolas will also stop imported meat from coming in.
Pangasinan made its move after reports indicated that the smugglers of meat had been flooding the province’s wet markets. The smugglers were said to be delivering their smuggled meat at 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. in Lingayen and at 3 a.m. in San Carlos.
Municipal councilor Leven Uy said they recently confiscated several kilos of smuggled frozen meat that had been intended to be sold in the town of Bayambang.
He said neither the Bureau of Customs nor the Agriculture Department had caught any of the smugglers.
In a resolution approved on March 9, Pangasinan’s provincial government urged all local government units “to strictly monitor the transport, storage and display of frozen and chilled meat and meat products.”
Subsequently, officials of Urdaneta officials pass a resolution banning the sale of frozen meat in the city.
“It has been the experience of most of our constituents that, more often than not, the sale of frozen meat in the markets of Urdaneta City results in several diseases and infections among consumers because of the frequent brownouts as a consequence of which is the contamination of bacteria in the said frozen meat,” the city government says in a proposed ordinance.
Pangasinan’s provincial government invoked Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code in regulating the supply of meat under its jurisdiction, and the hog growers and poultry raisers praised it for helping to save the meat industry.
Abono chairman and Swine Development Council director Rosendo So said Pangasinan’s move “only shows the Bureau of Customs is not doing its job to stop smuggling, or its personnel may be coddling the smugglers or unscrupulous importers and traders of these contrabands.”
“This move by the local government units to protect their citizens from the proliferation of frozen meat of dubious origin and safety, if enforced, will help greatly in the fight against smuggled meat.”
Pangasinan’s market operators had earlier noted that smugglers were flooding the wet markets with frozen meat.
Pangasinan’s provincial government said “there is a need to request the local government units to come up with precautionary measures to strictly monitor the handling of frozen meat and meat products for sale in the market within their territorial jurisdiction to ensure its quality and safety.”
Reblog from: http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/06/12/pangasinan-bans-imported-meat/
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