Tuesday, May 27, 2008 Tomas to file ombud case against meat inspection body
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña plans to file a complaint against National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS) officials before the anti-graft office after learning that it extended the Talisay City abattoir’s double A accreditation.
Talisay City’s modern abattoir was recently given a two-month extension so they can comply with the NMIS requirements.
Osmeña said that he would file a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas against whoever approved the granting of a conditional accreditation for Talisay’s abattoir.
“Giving a license before you are qualified, what is that?” he told a news conference yesterday.
Earlier, the NMIS recommended to downgrade the facility’s accreditation from double A to single A after it rated below 50 percent in a surprise inspection last May 16.
Concern
Cebu City officials have expressed concern over the quality of meat coming from Talisay City and if they should continue to ban its sale in Cebu City in the next two months.
Some 50 percent of the meat from the Talisay City slaughterhouse is brought to Cebu City, said Cebu City Veterinarian Alice Utlang.
Dr. Utlang told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday that her order to ban meat coming from Talisay will continue to be in effect. She issued the order last May 23, a day after the double A accreditation of the Talisay City abattoir was supposed to have expired.
Utlang admitted that she was dismayed to hear that the abattoir received a two-month conditional double-A accreditation from NMIS after its executive director, Jane Bacayo, told her about it.
“And this is not the first time that the NMIS gave out conditional accreditation. This may be the second or third time,” she said.
Intervened
And after learning that Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu City, 1st district) reportedly intervened in acquiring the conditional accreditation, Utlang told Bacayo that the NMIS
should have stood firm on their own rules.
“Being a regulatory body, they should stick to their laws,” she said.
While she appreciates the help Gullas extended to the slaughterhouse management, Utlang said that Bacayo should have made it clear to him the importance of following the regulations imposed by the NMIS.
Utlang’s office is yet to receive official documents showing that the abattoir was given conditional double A accreditation.
For now, she said, they will still ban in Cebu City the sale of slaughtered livestock from Talisay. (EPB)
