Supplier suspected in chicken smuggling probed

The ongoing investigation into the smuggling of a P50-million shipment of frozen chicken in the wake of the bird flu outbreak in Asia was expanded yesterday to include a Texas-based American supplier.

At the same time, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) filed technical smuggling charges against four of its officials assigned at the Batangas City port and three people involved in the import and release of the shipment.

In an urgent fax message to David Meisner of the United States Customs Service, Customs Deputy Commissioner Ray Allas asked that DM Shiutex, the supplier of the controversial shipment, be included in the probe.

Allas, chief of the Customs Intelligence and Enforcement Group (CIEG), asked Meisner to look into circumstances behind the misdeclaration of 19 refrigerated container vans of chicken leg quarters as polyester bags and the absence of a veterinary quarantine clearance, a basic requirement for the export of meat and meat products from the US.

"The surreptitious entry of such shipment caused public alarm because of suspicions that the cargoes are infected with the avian flu virus now prevalent in Asian countries, one of which is Taiwan. Based on the documents submitted to us, the shipment arrived in Taiwan from a port in the US and thereafter transferred to another vessel of Philippine registry named M/VBrinkness," Allas wrote Meisner.

In the same letter, Allas also asked his American counterpart to conduct an investigation into the questioned shipment to identify the people behind the smuggling as well as to find out why the shipment was misdeclared and the basic requirement for the export of frozen meat ignored.

Investigators found that the chicken leg quarters, which originated from Canada, were shipped to the US for repacking before they were sent to the Philippines via Taiwan on board another vessel. Taiwan is one of the 10 Asian countries affected by bird flu.

The controversial shipment was released two weeks ago from the Batangas City port despite a hold order from the Anti-Smuggling Intelligence Center for veterinary inspection and an earlier order issued by Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo to stop the entry of live fowl and poultry products from bird flu-affected countries.

Meanwhile, the BOC charged Aguinaldo Martinez, chief of the Batangas Port assessment division; Oscar Balicanta, customs appraiser; and customs examiners Ligaya Platon and Luisa Castillo with violating Section 3604 of the Tariff and Customs Code, as amended in relation to Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code.

The BOC also charged Ronaldo Laderas, his wife Raquel, and Ivy Sarad with violating Section 3601 and 3602 of the tariff law. Laderas owns Von Way Trading, the shipment’s consignee, while Raquel was the signatory in the import entries. Sarad was the broker who facilitated the processing of the import documents.

Investigators found that on Jan. 23 when the shipment was released from the Batangas City port, five import entries covering the shipment were filed with the BOC collector’s office. The frozen chicken shipment had been declared as general cargo and polyester bags, but despite this, the shipment was released from the port after the respondents signed their release papers.

The investigation report showed that Marquez disregarded existing BOC rules and practices when he circulated only the pink or delivery copy of the import entries, which were signed by the examiners appraisers.

"The other copies of the import entries, white for customs, green for gatekeepers, yellow for the National Statistics Office, orange for the tariff commission, blue for the Bureau of Internal Revenue, were kept inside the steel cabinet and taken out only at 9 a.m. last Jan. 26," the report said

Platon, according to the report, affixed her signature to the import entry without actually seeing and opening the container vans for examination, which was a gross violation of her duty.

The report added that Castillo also signed the import entry without actually conducting a physical examination of the shipment.

Bernardo said the ongoing investigation on the shipment will not stop until all those responsible for the smuggling are haled to court. He said that while the name of Chinese-Filipino businessman Lucio Co continues to surface in the investigation, they have no evidence linking him to the smuggling. Co owns a chain of grocery stores.

Bernardo added that the recovered chicken leg quarters will be donated to the Department of Social Welfare and Development if they are found free of the bird flu virus and fit for human consumption; otherwise they will be destroyed.

Of the 19 refrigerated container vans, 12 were found empty and five were intercepted with their contents intact and impounded at the Batangas City port.

The remaining two vans were seized last Jan. 28 at a checkpoint in Taguig, after the receipts presented by the drivers did not match the amount of chicken meat in the vans.

Health officials earlier warned that while the bird flu virus is deadlier than the organism that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), infected chicken meat is safe to eat if cooked properly.

"If you cook it at least at 70 degrees Celsius, it is safe to consume," World Health Organization country representative Dr. Jean Marc Olive said.

Olive told the Senate committee on agriculture and food, chaired by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, that it is important that the government take necessary measures to prevent the entry of the disease into the country.

He said the flu "pandemic" in 1918, 1967 and 1997 showed that bird flu could be deadlier than SARS.

"With the avian flu virus having spread in large portions of Asia’s poultry stock, there is a threat of importation of the virus into the Philippines. Such a wide spread of a highly aggressive avian virus has never been seen before," Olive said.

He noted that although previous bird flu outbreaks show that the disease was transmitted from live chickens to humans, "it will have many opportunities to alter its form and become transmissible between humans."

Olive said "best-case scenarios" suggest that a vaccine to protect human beings from the bird flu is "at least six or seven months" away.

Dr. Mariquita Mantala of the Department of Health said that based on recent experience, SARS kills less than 10 percent of those afflicted, while in Thailand, the fatality rate for bird flu was at least 30 percent.