MANILA, Philippines — The committee on agriculture in the House of Representatives has lined up among its priority bills the imposition of stricter sanitary procedures, storage and packaging of imported meat. Speaking at the Hog Raiser’s Summit held at the Waterfront Hotel here, Batangas Rep. Mark Llandro Mendoza, agriculture committee chairman, said the House panel will also push for measure that would impose higher penalties for the sale to the public of “botcha” which has threatened public health.
Mendoza said the unregulated entry of huge volumes of imported frozen meat and the ploliferation of double dead meat should be addressed immediately by both the Department of Agriculture and Congress.
“These adversely affected our local hog production as well as endangered the health and safety of the consuming public,” he stressed.
Nevertheless, the administration lawmaker cited the DA for taking immediate action to the importation problem by issuing Administrative Order No. 22-2010 which imposed more stringent measures to ensure that frozen meat products from Canada and the United States are safe for public consumption.
Mendoza assured Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala of the agriculture committee’s cooperation in the enactment of “necessary reforms and intervention” measures.
According to him the House committee is currently conducting an investigation into the proliferation of imported frozen meat products in various public markets in Cebu City, adding that it will immediately pursue “necessary control mechanisms” to address the issue.
Ben Rosario, Manila Bulletin
