TOURISTS caught smuggling meat products into the Philippines will be fined at least P200,000 to discourage them from bringing food items that may carry the dreaded African swine fever (ASF), the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol made the pronouncement recently after the DA found the legal basis imposing the fine.
Piñol also said he no longer needs to issue a memorandum order for the penalties as this provision is already in existing Philippine laws. But, he said, he may issue an advisory to remind Filipinos about these penalties.
Bureau of Animal Industry-ASF Task Force Head May Magno told the BusinessMirror in a separate interview that Republic Act 9296, as amended by RA 10536, or the Meat Inspection Code of the Philippines, outlined the penalties for bringing in meat into the country without proper clearance.
Under RA 10536, confiscation of “hot meat” would have a corresponding fine of P200,000 for first offense, P350,000 for second offense and a fine of P500,000 for the third and succeeding offenses.
The law defines hot meat as “the carcass or parts of carcass or food animals which were slaughtered from unregistered/unaccredited meat establishments and have not undergone the required inspection.”
Also classified as “hot meat” are undocumented, illegally shipped and unregistered carcass, parts of carcass and meat products coming from other countries and those that are classified as hot meat by the National Meat Inspection Service.
Meat-sniffing dogs
Piñol said the government is set to deploy 15 meat-sniffing dogs in all airports for international flights, especially those that allow planes from ASF-affected countries to land, on April 30. The government will prioritize the three terminals in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
He said the DA will spend P27 million for the 15 meat-sniffing dogs, including the payment for their handlers, for one year.
Documents from the DA showed that the government’s daily expenditure is at P4,931.50 per handler, which would cover feeding, grooming, cleaning of kennel, handling and sniffing duty shift.
Piñol said the government will eventually hire and deploy 40 more trained dogs, which would cost an additional P72 million.
The DA chief said in previous interviews that it would be cheaper for the government to deploy dogs than tap livestock inspectors or acquire additional X-ray machines for luggage inspection.
“This procurement did not undergo bidding anymore because this is an emergency purchase. Because there are no available dogs trained for meat-sniffing,” he said in a recent interview. “The budget came from the DA, from our calamity fund.”
The DA tapped the services of Great Chiens Ventures Corp. for the meat-sniffing dogs.
