NMIS continues to hold poultry meat

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

EVEN after a week, the National Meat Inspection Service continued to prevent 21 tons of dressed poultry being kept in a storage facility in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, from being brought out to the market amid questions on its documents from Bulacan.

Angie Barcelona, NMIS regional director, yesterday confirmed that the dressed chickens would remain under “quarantine” until the NMIS in Manila completed an investigation into the shipment.

Barcelona warned that NMIS would investigate and press charges against anyone who attempts to break the seal placed on the storage facility.

“Naka-silyo na nga mga karni karon. Kinsa tong mo-abli ana, makasohan gyud namo, kay amo mang ma-ilhan kon ablihan na kay na-a may silyo,” Barcelona said.

Authorities intercepted the shipment from Bulacan at the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental, and then allowed the dressed poultry to be brought outside, to a private storage facility in the same town.

Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vicente Emano identified the consignee to this paper last week as Trium Agri-Business Logistic Frozen Chicken Meat in Tagoloan.

Samples were re-examined at a laboratory here and tested negative for bird flu virus.

But despite the results of the re-examination, the shipping permit and a supposed meat inspection certificate allegedly issued before the ban, the NMIS continued the investigation.

Barcelona said the dressed poultry could not be released yet because NMIS executive director Ernesto Gonzales has yet to conclude the investigation into the shipment of the 21 tons of dressed chicken from Bulacan to Mindanao.

She said the inspection certificate and shipment permit were being scrutinized by Gonzales.

Barcelona declined to say exactly what the NMIS was investigating.

But she hinted: “Lawom ni nga investigation.”

Last week, regional veterinary quarantine services officer Dale Franco Llentic revealed there were questions on the origin of the dressed chickens. He said the dressed poultry came from Pasig and then brought to Bulacan.

The shipment caught authorities by surprise because it arrived at the Tagoloan port despite a ban ordered by the Department of Agriculture as an offshoot of the bird flu virus outbreak in Pampanga.