Frozen chicken, meats stuck at Manila ports for 1,000 days — PPA

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) revealed that, in addition to rice imports stuck in ports, there are shipments of chicken meat, pork, and onions that have been held up for over three years at the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and Manila South Harbor (MSH).

In a radio interview on Friday, PPA general manager, Atty. Jay Santiago, confirmed that several commodities are idle in the said Manila ports, such as pork meat, dressed chicken, and onions.

“There are refrigerated containers with frozen products. They are stuck there for more than 1,000 days. We already notified the Department of Agriculture (DA) of the situation so that they can make arrangements on how they will notify the consignees to pull out the idle shipments,” Santiago said in Filipino.

Santiago said the Bureau of Customs has cleared the entry of the shipments; therefore, they deem that these meat and agricultural products have already been cleared of foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu.

“We assume that those products have gone through sanitary inspection from the Bureau of Animal Industry of the DA, and have also gone through phytosanitary and sanitary inspections,” Santiago stressed.

Santiago said that goods pulled out by the BoC can either be disposed of after being declared "damaged goods" or donated to the government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

For imported rice, the PPA chief said overstaying shipments in Manila ports are already cleared by the BoC as of 30 September, “meaning consignees can already pull out the shipments there."

"To date, 592 containers can be pulled out anytime,” he said.

On the question of why these containers are deliberately stored in ports, Santiago said he didn’t know.

“But only two consignees are involved there. Maybe they are storing it in ports to save storage or warehousing costs,” he said.

Earlier, the PPA provided the DA with a list of consignees who have not yet released their rice shipments at Manila South Harbor and MICT. This list includes an inventory of pork, chicken, and onion shipments, supporting the administration's efforts to ensure food security in the country as the Christmas season approaches.

In a letter dated 1 October 2024, Santiago informed DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel about the rice importation inventory as of 30 September 2024, for both MSH and MICT.

The report included shipments with BoC clearance and those that have surpassed the 30-day dwell time.

The data reveals a total of 819 TEUs currently at MSH and MICT, with 40 TEUs exceeding 30 days at MICT.

At MSH, a certain rice shipment remains unclaimed despite BoC clearance, with dwell time reaching 287 days.