By John Rey Saavedra
CEBU CITY – Amid attempts to smuggle live hogs to Cebu, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) in Central Visayas is now intensifying measures to combat the proliferation of fake animal shipping permits.
Dr. Melika Adriatico, regional veterinary quarantine officer of the Veterinary Quarantine Service Division of BAI-7, in a forum here Tuesday, said they continue to detect fake permits despite the issuance of travel permits for live animals online.
She said their office received many reports regarding animals, meat, and animal products being shipped using fake permits.
A day after Governor Gwendolyn Garcia issued an order on Oct. 27, establishing an “Anti-Smuggling Inter-Agency Task Force” in Cebu province, the police in the municipality of Dumanjug intercepted a motorized banca carrying 79 undocumented hogs, as it arrived in Barangay Kanyuko.
Adriatico said they have not receive reports about fake permits issued in this city but those from other areas of the country.
She said BAI has adopted the use of Quick Response (QR) and bar codes that the veterinary quarantine inspectors scan by the time the cargoes are loaded onto the ship or aircraft.
She added cargoes that have fake permit will be seized or sent back to the place of origin, depending on the circumstances.
Adriatico said a show cause order would be given to the shipper who would be made to answer for the violation.
A shipping permit is a document issued by the BAI-National Veterinary Quarantine Services Division (NVQSD) through its offices and the animal quarantine inspectors that allows an individual to travel the listed items to the place as stipulated in the shipping permit.
Adriatico said the document aims to protect the life and health of animals and the public as well.
In Cebu, the veterinary quarantine stations are located at Pier 1 to 6 in Cebu City, as well in the ports of Carmen, Hagnaya, Tabuelan, Toledo, Tangil, Santander, and at the Mactan Cebu International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City. (PNA)
