The Bureau of Customs on Saturday said it has burned the P20 million worth of smuggled mackerel and meat suspected to be contaminated with the foot-and-mouth disease that it seized at the South Harbor in Manila.

In an interview with DZMM, BOC Commissioner Napoleon Morales said he ordered the Task Force on Anti-Smuggling (TFAS) to burn the items after getting the approval of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) and other concerned agencies.

Morales said the "rendering" process was conducted by TFAS from 11 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday.

Reports said officials stopped a plan to dump the smuggled items in Sta. Rita and Guagua towns in Pampanga following complaints from residents.

In a separate interview, Nicanor Briones, president of the Agriculture Sector Alliance of the Philippines, however, claimed that 40 percent of the seized shipment were missing and might have already been illegally distrubuted in the market.

"The contents were stolen while in the custody of Customs because the original seal has been replaced," he said.

Earlier reports said the shipment, which came from China, was pilfered right inside the security warehouse of the Harbor Center Terminal in North Harbor, Manila. It has no import permit from the BAI and no veterinary quarantine clearance.

Deputy Commissioner Celso Templo of the BOC and representatives from the BAI and the Veterinary Quarantine Office confirmed the pilferage after inspecting the containers that held the meat.

BOC said it will file a criminal case on Monday against Asia Golden Arc Marketing Inc., the importer of the smuggled items.

Reports said the consignee declared the meat as mackerel. Upon inspection, however, officials discovered that only 20 percent of the shipment had mackerel while the rest contained pork.

BOC, meanwhile, said that 11 more refrigerated vans containing smuggled meat are in its custody. He added that the contents were not yet declared as condemned meat.