EDITORIAL - Cull these smugglers

While health authorities were busy announcing that the country had banned the importation of chicken from Cambodia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam, some crooks at the Batangas port were busy making a killing. Not the culling of chickens suspected to have bird flu, but the lucrative kind that must have been going on for some time in that port of entry.

If consumers boycott chicken in the coming weeks, the local poultry industry has the Batangas Customs authorities to blame. Last Friday afternoon, 19 refrigerated container vans arrived at the Batangas port from Taiwan. The vans contained dressed chicken with a street value estimated at P50 million. The shipment must have gone through a special express lane because the vans were released about four hours later despite orders from the National Meat Inspection Board and the Department of Agriculture to keep the shipment at the port. Authorities managed to intercept only five of the containers hours after they left the port. As for the rest of the shipment, meat inspection officials fear the chicken could quickly be released to retailers in Luzon.

Bird flu, which health experts suspect came from China, has claimed lives in Vietnam and Thailand and previously in Hong Kong. Experts warn that the flu has a bigger potential than SARS of turning into a deadly pande-mic. Several Asian countries are culling millions of chickens to reassure their citizens and the international community that steps are being undertaken to stop the spread of the flu virus. In the Philippines, on the other hand, there are nincompoops who are welcoming the entry of all foreign shipments of chicken.

The culprits in this smuggling should be easy to trace. A shipment that large cannot possibly be released without someone signing the release papers at the Batangas port. Every signatory must be identified to the public and prosecuted, or else sent to Vietnam where they can be exposed to bird flu. The consignee must also be identified and investigated for smuggling.

The only way the culprits in this caper can get away with this is if they enjoy protection at the highest levels. Inevitably, suspicious glances will be cast in the direction of Malacañang. The administration, still busy with damage control on the citizenship issue against Fernando Poe Jr., can’t afford another scandal. Those behind this smuggling must not be allowed to get away with it.