Double-dead and/or hot meat

Just because everything seems relatively quiet in Cebu regarding the double-dead and/or hot meat problem now causing Metro Manila appetites to go haywire does not mean nothing of the sort is taking place under our very noses.

Undiscovered crime is not synonymous to absence of wrongdoing. All it means is no one has been caught. And I am not saying there are double-dead and/or hot meat syndicates in Cebu. All I am saying is, as in “New York, New York,” if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

Maybe authorities in Metro Manila are just more vigilant than ours. Be that as it may, it is time to step up our own vigilance. And for applicable laws to be tightened and corresponding penalties stiffened.

Willfully selling double-dead and/or hot meat is a crime more reprehensible than robbery, or any other crime short of rape and murder. When somebody makes money at the expense of someone else’s health and wellbeing, especially in a very filthy way, that is a most reprehensible crime.

If you cannot imagine the seriousness of the offense, try imagining yourself discovering that the food you have been served was prepared in something to which the cook relieved himself. I would not be surprised if you do not fly into a murderous rage.

But we do not want to become murderers. So the best thing we can do is go after these syndicates with round-the-clock aggressiveness. They should be given no quarters. And for good measure, the penalties against the crime should be increased ten-fold.

Engaging in the trade of double-dead and/or hot meat must be considered a heinous crime. For while the means may be different, the results can be devastatingly the same. If at all, it is akin to murder by installment.

Of course double-dead meat is not the same as hot meat. Double-dead meat is taken from animals that have died of disease while hot meat is from uninspected animals and thus illegally slaughtered.

Double-dead meat may seem far more nasty than hot meat. But when one engages in one, it becomes almost natural to engage in the other. It is the porousness and interchangeability of the two undertakings that make them so dangerous to consumers.

Food is not just an essential requirement for individual health and personal life, it is also a product that enhances the wider endeavors of the larger society. For example, safe food is an important component in the promotion of a place for, say, tourism or investment purposes.

Cebu and the Philippines in general cannot hope to successfully promote themselves as great tourism and investment destinations if the news coming out of these places involve almost daily confiscations, or the implied presence, of double-dead and/or hot meat.

Senators Francis Pangilinan and Manny Villar and Rep. Narciso Santiago have taken very strong positions regarding this problem. Because everybody eats, the problem is the concern of everybody else. So the initiatives of these gentlemen should be supported by everyone.

The public may also want to get involved. After all, it is their own health that is most at stake. People can help in the monitoring by reporting to authorities any suspicious activities they suspect may involve the criminal sale of hazardous meat and meat products.

Under the Meat Inspection Code and the Consumer Act, a violator faces a fine of only up to P10,000.00 and an imprisonment of no more than five years. This should be increased 10 times. Nobody should trifle with our food and get away with it.