President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the request of the Department of Agriculture to use the Office of the President’s P1-billion contingent fund to support hog raisers who suffered from heavy losses due to African swine fever.
READ: Hog raisers need P26 billion to contain ASF
During the 43rd Cabinet meeting Wednesday night, the President also approved the plan to designate cold storage areas in the ports of Manila, Subic, Batangas, Cebu and Davao to monitor the entry of meat products.
“We need to help the hog raisers because it’s their livelihood. They have been affected by the swine fever,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a press briefing.
Agriculture officials said the hog industry was losing P1 billion a month in lost opportunities, but raisers say they have lost about P10 billion in revenue since the outbreak.
While not harmful to humans, ASF is fatal to pigs and about 70,000 hogs have been culled nationwide since August, or 0.55 percent of the country’s 12.7-million hog population, in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.
Panelo said the President remains confident in how the DA is dealing with the outbreak.
“He hasn’t said anything that he is not satisfied,” Panelo told Palace reporters.
So far, the DA has identified Rizal, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Cavite as areas with ASF.
Some hogs in Malabon, Caloocan, and Quezon City also tested positive for the virus.
Of these areas, Bulacan and Pampanga were the hardest hit, recording over 20,000 hog deaths each.
Bulacan supplies 60 percent of Metro Manila’s pork requirements, according to the province’s website.
Ronni Domingo, Bureau of Animal Industry director, said that 40,480 pigs are now susceptible to the deadly swine disease.
On a global scale, a quarter of the world’s domestic pigs have died this year as a virus spread across Europe and Asia. China, Vietnam, and South Korea have also culled thousands of pigs as a response to the outbreak.
The ASF outbreaks in the country remains “unknown or inconclusive,” according to authorities, but the DA has floated the possibility that it has been caused by swill feeding.
The government has been implementing the 1-7-10 protocol, where ASF-afflicted pigs and others within a one-kilometer radius are culled.
Those within the seven-kilometer radius have limited movement, while pigs in the 10-kilometer radius are strictly monitored.
Senator Francis Pangilinan, meanwhile, proposed suspending pork importations and encouraging the sale of local pork.
“This will be a big boost to local hog-raisers, many of whom are also farmers seeking to increase their income through hog-raising,” said Pangilinan.
“We must explore all possible means to help our backyard hog raisers as they bear the brunt of losing their source of income,” he added.
Pangilinan said all sectors in the hog industry must cooperate with the Department of Agriculture as it implements measures to prevent the spread of the ASF.
He also urged an immediate investigation over the smuggled pork from China that caused this outbreak.
“Someone must be held accountable over these illegal shipments,” he said.
“Now that we have confirmed and identified the cause of the ASF outbreak in the Philippines, it is important more than ever to escalate our efforts to curb its spread.”
READ: ASF-hit raisers get extra aid