About P200,000 worth of Chinese product “Maling” were confiscated in a port in Cebu City after the shipper failed to present certification from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The said pork product came from suspected African Swine Fever (ASF)- virus infected country.
A ban on such products is currently in effect following an executive order issued by Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
According to a report by Sugbo News, it said that these were first intercepted by the Bureau of Animal Industry Veterinary Quarantine Station (BAI VQS) 7 and the Cebu Port Authority at the Pier 1 yesterday.
The goods included 966 cans of 170-gram and 246 cans of 340- grams Maling cans. They were reportedly from Cebu and were shipped to Bohol, but were ordered shipped back to Cebu.
Port Police Sr./Insp. Adolfo Abregana Jr., chief of operations section in Cebu Ports Authority, said the shipper is AEL Development Group Inc.
The shipper had documents but had no FDA certification, thus it was reported to the Department of Agriculture Regional Veterinarian Quarantine Office.
The quarantine office then raised the alarm to the province’s Task Force.
The task force brought the confiscated products to the province-owned warehouse in M. Velez, awaiting thermal destruction.
ASF Vice Chair Dr. Mary Rose Vingcoy says they have yet to schedule the disposal of the confiscated products.
Shipper AEL is operating in Mandaue City and is the sole supplier of Maling products in all supermarkets in Cebu and one supermarket in Bohol.
According to Celeste Laput, a representative of the AEL, all Maling products that were distributed to all their clients in Cebu were already pulled out.
Laput said they already pulled out their products from the market since they were made aware of the executive order issued by Gov. Garcia.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia issued EO 14 on Aug. 22, prohibiting the entry of pork, pork-related products and by-products into Cebu province for 100 calendar days without permits or certificates from National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) and Bureau of Food and Drugs. (Report from Sugbo News)
