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PASG seizes smuggled fowl meat in Navotas raid

THE Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) pressed its operation against the possible outbreak of the deadly virus avian flu by raiding a cold storage facility in Navotas, Metro Manila full of some P150 million worth of illegally imported exotic fowl meat and aquatic produce.

The raid on the Common Cold Storage Facilities at 525 M. Naval Street came two weeks after the same team of PASG operatives led by Police Supt. Johnny Bacbac pounced on two warehouses in the nearby San Rafael Village containing stocks of imported Peking duck and other aquatic produce.

The Navotas raid yielded frozen Peking duck, rice duck, Hong Kong geese, pork shrimp and imported fish as well as onions and garlic contained in 11 freezer vans and 15 chillers. Also found were giant squids, salmon heads and other meat products like Angus beef, chicken and pork.

Undersecretary Antonio A. Villar Jr., PASG head, ordered the place padlocked and to get veterinary authorities to check if the frozen meats are contaminated with the bird flu virus. He said intelligence reports indicated that the meats did not pass the scrutiny of Chinese veterinary authorities. "For sure, they being smuggled, did not also pass check by local authorities such as the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Bureau of Animal Industry and Department of Agriculture regulations," Villar said.

3 NPAs killed in Camarines encounter

THREE New People's Army guerrillas were killed in a clash with government soldiers in Capalonga, Camarines Norte Friday, Maj. Jeffrey Sodusta, commander of the Army's 9th Infantry Division, said. Sodusta said the three were extorting food from the villagers.

He said Army soldiers caught up with 20 rebels at Alayao village at around 6:30 a.m. based on information provided by residents who, he said, were fed up with the extortion. He said the clash lasted some 30 minutes before the NPAs withdrew, leaving behind their dead comrades and two rifles.

Sodusta stressed that the encounter was "intelligence-driven" and their informers were the residents themselves who were tired of feeding the rebels. "The people are in a difficult situation and yet the rebels take the food from their children," he said.

Sodusta said troops and K9 units are pursuing the remnants of the group. He said there are at least 500 rebels still operating in the Bicol Region after the military neutralized at least 80 of them in the first quarter of 2008. - Victor Reyes

Court junks Ombudsman bid to turn trader into state witness

THE Fourth Division of the Sandiganbayan has junked a request by Office of the Ombudsman to drop businessman Homero A. Mercado as a private defendant in four tax credit scam cases in exchange for his testimony against his four co-accused.

The graft court said Mercado, owner of Jam Liner bus company, does not deserve to be excused from two counts of graft and two counts of falsification of public documents after he failed to offer anything vital to the government case.

Mercado had already been enrolled in the Witness Protection Program by the Department of Justice and was granted immunity from suit by the Office of the Ombudsman but was inexplicably named one of the defendants in four charges related to alleged illegal grant of tax credit certificates. His co-accused included former Finance undersecretary Antonio Belicena, chief of the One-stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center which issued the TCCs; Center deputy executive director Uldarico Andutan Jr., local content section OIC Raul C. de Vera and senior tax specialist Rosanna P. Diala.