Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso on Wednesday vowed to renovate the city’s primary abbatoir within six months after finding it in a poor, filthy condition.
Domagoso vowed to hasten the construction of the Vitas slaughterhouse in the Tondo district and improve its “dilapidated, stinking, and unsanitary” facilities and environs.
“We cannot take this sitting down because what we’re after is that the people of Manila who will buy meat can be sure that what they will purchase was prepared cleanly,” he said.
The mayor also pointed out the absence of proper offices for the Manila Veterinary Inspection Board.
The new facility would house a small community where its workers, including more than 300 butchers, could live, the mayor promised.
It would include renovating 27 old housing buildings around Vitas that are in precarious condition after shanty residents extended their homes to the rooftops.
A tarpaulin bearing some of the planned new structures included an animal clinic, a holding area for animals, and a city pound.
Domagoso was also keen on Vitas meeting the slaughterhouse standards of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, as the city government would look into the legality of a cockpit arena built next to it.
