Probe ordered on smuggled pork shipment’s disappearance

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales has ordered an investigation on the reported mysterious disappearance of smuggled frozen pork worth about P40-million at the Harbor Center in North Harbor, Manila.

Morales has directed the bureau’s Internal Inquiry and Prosecution Division (IIPD), led by Willy Sarmiento, and the Customs Legal Service (CLS), under lawyer Reynaldo Umali, to conduct separate investigations to determine possible involvement of some Customs personnel.

"We will get into the bottom of this. We want to determine the people behind this incident and I want them charged criminally and administratively," Morales told The STAR.

Customs officials and representatives from the Bureau of Animal Industry and the Veterinary Quarantine Office were about to inspect the shipment last Nov.9 and discovered that the pork — stored in four 40-foot reefer shipping containers — were gone.

"It is clear the reefer vans’ contents have been pilfered since our official and original BAI seal was replaced with seal of almost striking similarity except the number series," revealed Reynaldo Quilang, Veterinary Quarantine Office officer-in-charge.

Customs officials believed it was possible some erring port officers were behind the theft.

The cargo, consigned to Asia Golden Arc marketing and brokered by SM Estrada, was confiscated after it was misdeclared as frozen mackerel.

It was also learned that the meat had no import permit from the Bureau of Animal Industry and no veterinary quarantine clearance.

The shipment, which originated from China, was stored at the Sigma Warehouse at the Harbor Center after it was seized by Customs authorities on Sept. 1.

The government has banned the importation of frozen meat from several countries — China, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, North Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam — to prevent bird flu and other animal diseases from entering the country.

"This existing ban of frozen meat and meat products of cloven-footed animals particularly pork from China is to prevent the entry of the infectious foot-and-mouth disease," said Morales.

Apart from the Bureau of Customs’ investigative departments, the National Bureau of Investigation is also set to conduct its own investigation on the incident.

Ruel Lasala, NBI regional director for National Capital Region, said they will question some Customs personnel and officers "to explain how the item was pilfered right inside their establishment."

The NBI has stepped into the case upon request of Customs Intelligence and Enforcement Group chief Deputy Commissioner Celso Templo. — Edu Punay