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THE PRESIDENTIAL Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) head office yesterday told its officials in Cebu to keep an eye out for smuggled agriculture products, particularly, meat.
Jay Francia, director of PASG, said following the confiscation of P150 million worth of smuggled meat products in Metro Manila, smugglers may decide to reroute their operations through the Cebu ports.
Francia said PASG was coordinating with farmer groups. Some members have been deputized to help monitor the movements of agriculture products in public ports and private wharfs.
Lawyer Rico Rey Francis Holganza, chief of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Services (CIIS), said imported meat products make up one or two percent of the items that go through the Cebu ports.
Meat products are easy to spot because they come in freezer vans to keep them from spoiling.
Only a few companies in Cebu import meat because Cebu has its own suppliers, he said.
He admitted, however, that meat products smuggled through international ports outside of Cebu may still get into the province through domestic ports, especially with PASG’s intensified operations in Luzon.
He said it is difficult for CIIS to inspect domestic cargo because this is beyond the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Customs.
Domestic cargo, he said, is dealt directly between the shipper and the cargo forwarder.
He said CIIS could only inspect domestic cargo if it is a “transshipment” or cargo from out of the country whose end destination is Cebu, but is first unloaded in another international port, such as in Manila.
