"It’s not likely the problem will go away soon."
"It’s not likely the problem will go away soon."
The way the government is handling the African swine fever problem is not working. The problem continues to spread.
From the province of Bulacan, the disease has spread to the metro area like Quezon City. It has also reached Pampanga, maybe even Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija. Just a few days ago, infected meat was intercepted in Southern Luzon.
The government should have been more clinical when the problem was first detected. The pig population in Bulacan and Quezon City should have all been destroyed. This may seem heartless but it is better to lose a part of the industry than the whole. Now, the swine industry is beginning to lose money and the Department of Agriculture has its hands full on how to control the spread of the virus. The problem is exacerbated by unscrupulous people wanting to sell infected pork and transporting them to areas that have not been infected, thereby contributing to the spread of the ASF.
And since it takes time to completely get the country completely free of the problem which some experts are saying to be about two years, the problem is not going away any time soon.
If the government wants to solve the problem quickly, it needs to be aggressive and have a good action plan. The people from the Department of Health should also stop saying that contaminated pork with ASF is safe to eat so long as the meat is cooked well. Maybe these people should go on TV and show everybody that they are willing to do what they are preaching. If not, they should simply keep their mouth shut.
The swine industry is worth a couple of hundred billion pesos, according to some estimates. It cannot therefore simply be ignored. It is very Filipino to think of what will happen to hog raisers if all the pigs in a province will be destroyed due to the infection in just a few municipalities—but look at what has happened, it is now spreading to more areas.
Meat processors will also now stop buying local pork which will surely hurt the local hog industry.
Fortunately, because of the geography of the country, the problem could be prevented from spreading all over the country—but only if the concerned agencies of the government are aggressive enough.
What the provinces in the Visayas are doing is the proper and right thing to do and that is to ban all pork products from Luzon.
This problem needs an integrated approach by different government agencies. Perhaps the Philippine National Police can help in establishing more stationary and mobile check points to prevent people from transporting contaminated meat to sell. More important, the government must show some kind of ruthlessness in order solve the problem at the earliest possible time.
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PBrig General Debold Sinas, the newly appointed Director of the National Capital Region Police Office, is forming teams composed of police personnel to go after police scalawags within his command. Since his assumption to his new post, he has taken steps to show his seriousness when it comes to police discipline.
Although this is because of the ninja fiasco, he should nonetheless be congratulated for his efforts. We have to wonder however, whether this is the best course of action since there is already the Internal Affairs Service mandated by law to go after erring police personnel. IAS is part of the Philippine National Police but is now trying to urge Congress to separate it from the PNP so that it can function independently, free from the constraints of being under the Chief of the PNP. There is a lot of merit in this move but any serious effort towards this end must be studied carefully so as not to create another problem. If such a move will indeed happen, perhaps IAS can investigate any personnel up to the rank of Lt. Colonel only.
Colonels and above being presidential appointees can also be investigated but only upon the approval of the Office of the President.
Traditionally, the Internal Affairs is part of the police organization. It is not separate. But because of the ever-increasing number of police personnel facing charges, separation can certainly be considered as an option. Because the anti-drug campaign is a signature program of the President, the ninja cop fiasco was prominently covered by the media.
The PNP, however, has experienced serious upheavals in the past and have always emerged from it stronger. This is because by and large, the vast majority of the PNP is composed of good men and women who simply want to serve their country as honorably as possible and they have proven this time and time again throughout its existence from the Philippine Constabulary days to this day. Yes, there will always be rotten elements both in the officer corps and in its enlisted ranks but the organization have always steadied itself and recovered.
Since 1992 when the PNP was established, controversies involving the Chief of the organization have happened about three times already. This is a lot considering that it has just been 27 years since its inception. It shows a mark deterioration of discipline, leadership, values and more. This should be what the PNP leadership should be looking at.
The PNP today is six or seven times bigger than the old Constabulary and the demands of police work has multiplied and will get more complicated in the coming years. Let us hope that the incoming generation of PNP leader will be equal to the challenges. If not, then the public will suffer.
