DA employees probed over meat imports

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is investigating the possible involvement of its own employees in the transport of banned meat products amid the still unidentified cause of swine deaths in the country.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar has admitted that some DA employees may be conniving to bring in and transport banned meat products into other areas of the country.

“There are some workers in DA that are involved in these problems and some are even transporting to Pampanga already,” Dar said.

“We will confiscate the products and then we will dismiss and file cases against these people,” he added.

The DA is coordinating with the local government of Manila for the immediate identification of the DA employees involved.

The latest smuggled shipment apprehended was in Tondo last week, where over 20 metric tons of meat worth P20 million were seized.

The products were imported from China, the main country affected by the dreaded African swine fever, the same swine disease being suspected to have caused pig deaths in Rizal and Bulacan.

The DA has yet to identify the real cause of the increased mortality of pigs in Rizal and Bulacan as confirmatory tests are still ongoing.

“We confiscated a lot. We have to help each other to avoid another incident. If we work together, we will be able to handle this,” Dar said.

Currently, the Philippines is instituting a ban on imports coming from China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, North Korea, Laos, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Moldova, South Africa, Zambia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Germany and Romania.

African swine fever continues to ravage Southeast and East Asia one year after an outbreak occurred in China. It is a highly contagious hemorrhagic disease of pigs, warthogs, European wild boar and American wild pigs. Mortality rates are high as 100 percent.

The disease could potentially wipe out the Philippines’ P260-billion hog industry.