NBI destroys P200M smuggled meat

Some P200 million worth of smuggled meat was destroyed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at a treatment storage and disposal facility in San Ildefonso, Bulacan yesterday.

The NBI said the frozen products were seized during a raid on a cold storage facility in Marilao, Bulacan, on 27 September, when cyber patrol of the NBI discovered the company was selling meat online.

A subpoena was issued by the NBI to the firm after it discovered that the claim of the company is contradictory that they are operating solely as an ice plant.

The NBI told he firm to explain why it was importing products “without passing through the authorities, license, inspection,” according to NBI Director Jaime Santiago.

Santiago said they will file a case against them if their explanation is unsatisfactory.

Declared unfit for human consumption, the meat was disposed through thermal decomposition to prevent it from reaching the public market.

The NBI chief said there is really a need to dispose them because the court declared it unsafe to eat.

“I told them to donate it to the zoo but it’s dangerous. If you feed it to the fishes, it’s also dangerous,” Santiago said.

Santiago said at least seven more trucks, loaded with the confiscated products from Marilao, will be transported for disposal.

The destruction of the smuggled meat is expected to take five days to complete.

Companies were warned to stop illegal importation as the NBI will intensify its efforts, particularly with the expected rise in frozen products during the “ber” months.

Santiago emphasized that under the new Anti-Agri Economic Sabotage Law recently signed by the president, offenders could face life imprisonment and a fine amounting to five times the value of the products involved in the crime.

They should not pursue the illegal business because they will not stop their cyber patrolling until they apprehend them and face the prospects of life imprisonment and a fine five times of the value.