Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian joined President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in distributing frozen mackerels to families from Barangay 649 in Tondo, Manila.
“Joined the President’s distribution of tons of confiscated smuggled mackerel in Baseco, Manila. These confiscated boxes of smuggled frozen fish being distributed now in Manila are part of a big haul of the Bureau of Customs,” he stated in a Facebook post.
A total of 21,000 families in Tondo received two kilos of mackerel each.
The frozen fish was sourced from P178.5 million worth of mackerels intercepted by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) in October due to a lack of the mandatory sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance.
The mackerels were marked safe for consumption following testing conducted by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
“These tons of confiscated smuggled fish will be distributed among the poorest barangays in the 17 local government units in the National Capital Region; Obando, Bulacan, and Bacoor, Cavite, including clients inside city jails, public hospitals, and residents of various care facilities,” Gatchalian’s post read.
The Tondo event marked the first distribution of the donated goods, which was formalized through a memorandum of agreement signed early Saturday morning between the DSWD and the Department of Agriculture.
