MANILA -- Keep calm and wait for the Department of Agriculture (DA) to issue directives on slaughtering and eating pork, Malacañang said on Monday.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this advice after DA announced that confirmatory Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests showed that it was African swine fever (ASF) that prompted the depopulation of more than 7,000 hogs in Bulacan and Rizal farms last month.
“The reasonable thing to do is to avoid it but I’m sure the DA will be issuing circulars relative to that. Me, I’m avoiding it but this morning I ate,” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
“We have to wait for the DA Secretary exactly if it’s safe, which part of the areas are safe. If some areas are affected by the African swine fever then the reasonable thing to do is to do whatever the DA Secretary will tell us,” he added.
Panelo assured the public that the DA has implemented measures to keep the animal virus controlled.
“I think there is no need to worry considering the DA Secretary has not cautioned us not to eat or to avoid. Wala pa namang directive (There’s no directive yet). The fact alone na kumain ang mga secretaries and me, siguro wala namang nangyari sa akin (that some secretaries and I ate pork, perhaps there’s nothing to worry about. Nothing happened to me),” Panelo said.
“I’m sure the DA is already doing something about it. Just like any other sudden foreign disease that affects the swine industry, the DA will undertake all the measures necessary to secure the public for their safety. That’s S.O.P (standard operating procedure),” he added.
Panelo also assured the public that the DA and other agencies are expected to be “transparent” on their activities.”
Meanwhile, Panelo expressed confidence that DA Secretary William Dar is “competent” enough to handle the problem.
In a press briefing, Dar said 14 out of the 20 blood samples from the infected hogs sent to the United Kingdom for laboratory testing turned up positive for ASF.
However, he said the DA was verifying if the ASF strain was similar to that of Vietnam and China.
The DA had yet to receive reports of more hog deaths up to this time, he added. (PNA)
