Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Friday has issued an executive order to help prevent the entry of African swine fever-tainted meat in supermarkets and retail outlets.
At a media conference, Belmonte said “while people think that ASF is already long overdue, we want to show to the media that we have a closure on this issue.”
“That we are doing something about it… that our efforts are continued. My ultimate goal is for Quezon City to be declared by the Department of Agriculture, Secretary William Dar, that we are ASF-free,” she added.
She said her order was the result of a collaboration between the city government and private supermarkets to ensure that safe pork meat is being sold to the city residents.
“I cannot just imagine that reputable supermarkets, such as SM and Robinsons, would jeopardize their reputation for a few pieces of pork [meat],” she said.
In a related development, the local government unit in Binmaley, Pangasinan on Thursday evening declared a state of calamity due to the increasing number of hogs infected with ASF.
In a special session, the Sangguniang Bayan unanimously passed a resolution that intends to use the municipality’s calamity fund to aid hog raisers with an initial P1,000 financial assistance per culled pig, and for the conduct of activities to prevent the further spread of the virus.
The LGU has “started culling operations within the 1-km. radius in the barangays affected by ASF and these resulted in massive losses for hog raisers,” the resolution read.
Among the affected barangays are Linoc, Canaoalan, Poblacion, and San Isidro Sur.
In an interview, town agriculturist Fernando Ferrer said they had culled 328 pigs only from two barangays.
“Some 307 hogs were culled in Barangay San Isidro Sur while 21 pigs in Barangay Linoc,” Ferrer said.
He said they have yet to conduct culling operations in barangays Canaoalan and Poblacion because there is no available burial site for the pigs.
Authorities are set to get blood samples from hogs in Barangay Caloocan Sur starting Friday because there were reported cases of pigs dying with symptoms of ASF.
Meanwhile, other local government units in Pangasinan have intensified their quarantine checkpoint operations to ensure ASF does not enter their premises.
The first ASF case in the province this year was recorded in Barangay Linoc here. Last week, some hogs also tested positive for ASF in a barangay in Malasiqui town.
Last year, Mapandan and Bayambang towns were affected but the ASF virus was contained. With PNA
