BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered concerned government agencies and law enforcement groups in the city to intensify their unrelenting and uncompromising operations against the sale of double dead or adulterated meat in the City Public Market primarily for the protection of the health of consumers, especially during the Yuletide season.
He said much has been heard about the proliferation of the sale of double dead and adulterated meat products in the City Public Market but it was only during last week’s operation that combined forces from the local government and concerned government agencies were able to seize a huge volume of double dead meat.
“We must sustain our operations to clear the public market of such prohibited meat products. We do not want the health of our local residents and visitors to be compromised with the sale of adulterated meat,” Domogan stressed.
He appealed to local residents and visitors to make sure that they buy meat products that are given the appropriate clearance by the National Meat Inspection Services in the Cordillera and the City Veterinary Office as appearing on the stamped portion of the meat products, indicating that they passed the regular inspection standards.
Earlier, at least 5 tons of “bocha” or smuggled double dead meat was seized by combined operatives of the city’s Public Order and Safety Division (POSD), City Veterinary Office and the Cordillera office of the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS-CAR) during a surprise operation inside the Baguio City Public Market, Thursday.
Retired Senior Inspector Policarpio Cambod, chief of the city’s POSD, said a total of 4,804 kilos of mishandled, double dead and adulterated meat which were packed in over 250 crates were seized by the operating personnel who swooped down the different stalls inside the public market and seized the “hot meat.”
“We were surprised on the seized volume of hot meat inside the different storage areas of the city market’s wet section. We did not expect that it will reach at least five tons,” Cambod stressed.
The confiscated double dead and adulterated meat were loaded in three trucks and were subsequently brought to the NMIS-CAR compound where the hot meat was buried in a deep hole that was dug for the purpose.
Cambod assured the operations against double dead meat being sold in the market will continue in order to prevent the buying public from being hoodwinked into buying “bocha” instead of fresh meat for their merrymaking during the Yuletide season.
He said, aside from pork, their upcoming operations will also focus on frozen chicken and frozen fish products to rid the city’s Public Market from being a dumping ground of double dead and adulterated meat products that pose a serious threat to the health of the consumers once they eat such kind of food.
In previous operations, Cambod cited joint POSD enforcers and law enforcers were only able to seize several hundreds of kilos of double dead meat but Thursday’s operation yielded the biggest haul from different storage facilities of meat vendors who were not identified during the operation.