By John Rey Saavedra/PNA
CEBU CITY — The Port of Cebu is on alert following the reported outbreak of deadly African swine fever at a huge pig farm in China, a Bureau of Customs (BOC) official said on Thursday.
BOC-Cebu Operations Division Chief Reynaldo Leyson told the Philippine News Agency that their office was already alerted by the higher-ups against the possible entry of pork products from China and some western countries where the virus has reportedly killed hundreds of pigs.
The Port Operations Division is considered the front line office of customs as it deploys boarding officers to foreign cargo vessels that dock in the Cebu International Port (CIP), along with other personnel from the Bureau of Quarantine and the Bureau of Immigration.
Leyson said they can immediately detect importation of meat and meat products from countries like China through the inward foreign cargo manifest.
“If our port operations personnel notice a meat importation, we will alert right away the Assessment and the Customs Police Divisions so that they can make appropriate actions,” he said.
Import documentation is very important (in detecting imported meat products), he added.
Department of Agriculture (DA-7) Regional Director Salvador Diputado told the PNA that they already knew about the ban on imported meat and meat products through the advisory of Agricultural Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.
Diputado said even in the absence of hard copy of Piñol’s directives, they have already read it through the secretary’s blog in the internet. The secretary is an active blogger and released his advisories and advocacies related to agriculture through his blog, some of which saw print on Facebook.
“The important agencies to watch against the entry of swine products from China are those in-charge of border security,” Diputado said. “It will be a problem if we apply laxity in times like this.”
There is a need to tighten control and monitoring in our international ports, he said.
According to him, laxity in control and monitoring will cost the country when “these (frozen meat) products which are so cheap” can enter in our jurisdiction and wreak havoc in our local swine industry when.
The Agriculture department’s regional executive, however, assured that their office will work hard in preventing the entry of African swine fever in Central Visayas.
His office has not received any report about the case of this diseases in the region, he said.
