MAGALANG, Pampanga—About 200 piggeries and poultry farms here will be inspected to determine if they are engaged in legal business or are being used as fronts for the manufacture of illegal drugs, Mayor Malu Lacson said.
Lacson said a “massive inspection” is being conducted by teams from the permit, health, sanitation, fire, and police authorities of Magalang to make sure these businesses are doing what they should.
Only 10 piggeries and poultries were able to renew their business permits at the start of the fiscal year “because they met strict requirements and were cleared of any wrongdoing,” while the others are under further inspections “pending the submission of additional papers as required by the law,” the mayor said.
During a media forum at the Clark Freeport, Lacson said the composite inspection was launched after police uncovered one pig farm as a front for illegal drug production in barangay Balitucan, Magalang last year.
The inspection also aims to validate reports Lacson continues to get from concerned citizens, nongovernment organizations and other sources “that there are still some who continue to ply their illegal activities in the area.”
Lacson warned the animal farm owners “to stop their illegal activities or face the full force of the law.”
Illegal drug manufacturers have used poultry and piggery farms as laboratories to conceal or blend the smell of the drugs against the waste of the animals to mislead authorities. The farm raided in Balitucan resulted in the seizure of P6 million worth of illegal drugs, including equipment, last September.
Another laboratory raided in barangay San Juan Bano in Arayat was disguised as piggery farm, which was the biggest in the region if not in the country, and capable of producing 100 kilograms of shabu a day.
Curiously, Lacson and Mayor Jomar Hizon of Bacolor are being charged before the Ombudsman by the Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency after they sold 7,000 pigs worth P7 million, which the authorities considered as evidence against Chinese nationals suspected of making illegal drugs who were caught in the Arayat and Balitucan raids.
Hizon’s family is engaged in a meat processing business. However, he and Lacson claimed the sale of the pigs was legal because it was approved by the legal officer of the Department of Interior Local Government in Central Luzon, owing to the lack of persons to maintain the piggery and to prevent the spread of disease in the town.
The P7 million proceeds are now deposited in trust fund, “meaning that nobody can touch it without the approval of the court,” Lacson said.
The Ombudsman returned the case for reinvestigation, as the PDEA was not open for mediation with the two mayors. The case is now pending before the Regional Trial Court of Angeles City Branch No. 62.