CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The smuggled onions with a combined worth of PHP66 million which were seized here by a multi-agency task force early this month are "dangerous" to consume, officials said Saturday.
In an interview, Cris Angelo Andrade, information officer of the Bureau of Customs in Northern Mindanao (BOC-10), said all seized smuggled agricultural products are hazardous to consume, as per the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) of the Department of Agriculture in Region 10 (DA-10).
He said the seized goods were currently in the custody of BOC-10 and will be destroyed after the issuance of the condemnation order.
“There is a condemnation committee. However, I still do not know when is the condemnation date,” Andrade said.
Manuel Barradas, the BPI supervising agriculturist, said in a statement that their only option is either to destroy the products or return them to their origin, which is very costly.
“We don’t know what pest and disease these might bring that would infect our other crops here in Mindanao. This would also pose a human risk because we don’t know what preservatives or chemicals they used, this is a hazard to our consumers,” he said.
Since the beginning of July, there have been four operations that resulted in the seizure of onions that were declared as different shipped items.
The recent seizure took place on Thursday, July 28 when another shipment of smuggled red and white onions was seized with an estimated worth of PHP18 million.
In 2021, the DA and BOC forged an agreement to implement a new set of measures to curtail the entry of smuggled agricultural products and ensure an optimum level of food safety for Filipino consumers in accordance with the provisions of Republic Act 10611 or the “Food Safety Act of 2013 and other applicable laws.”
RA 10845 otherwise known as the "Anti- Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016" states that seized smuggled agricultural products, shall be disposed of in a manner to be determined by the appropriate regulatory agency.
In Northern Mindanao, DA-10 Regional Executive Director Carlene C. Collado, who at the same time is the chair of DA Regional Management Committee, has set measures to strengthen partnership with BOC Cagayan de Oro Port in curtailing the entry of smuggled agricultural products, citing Customs Memorandum Order No. 4, series of 2007, known as the “Implementation of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of Finance and the Department of Agriculture on Anti-Smuggling.” (PNA)
