EXTENDED BAN. Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino says the ban on pork and pork products from Luzon should be extended until the government assures the provinces that the African Swine Fever (ASF) is already contained, during an interview on Monday (Oct. 28, 2019). Dino asked President Rodrigo Duterte to support the move of the four governors in Central Visayas in imposing a total ban on pork and pork products from Luzon. (PNA file photo)
CEBU CITY – The total ban of pork and pork products from Luzon should be extended until the provinces are assured that the country is free from African Swine Fever (ASF) virus, the presidential assistant for the Visayas said on Monday.
“There’s only one way of protecting our region’s hog industry. That is to make sure that the ASF virus is contained. That’s the time that we can declare that we are ASF-free and eat the pork and pork products in areas that there is an outbreak,” Dino said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Dino said he wrote President Rodrigo Duterte over the weekend, informing him about the possibility of extending the ban to ensure that the virus is contained and will not affect the PHP20-billion hog industry in Central Visayas.
He said he asked the President to support the initiatives by the four governors in the region in protecting their provinces against the entry of meat and meat products derived from pigs or processed in Luzon areas where the ASF outbreak have been declared.
He said the ban “imposed by the governors could be indefinitely extended until the government declares that the country is free from ASF virus”.
In his letter, Dino said the “Visayas Islands have a significant chance of protection” from the disease affecting the pigs.
He lauded the move of the governors in sealing off the provinces in Central Visayas, which is also aimed to protect the livelihood of the backyard farmers, that constitute around 70 percent of the hog industry in the region.
Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia had issued an executive order imposing a 100-day total ban on the entry of pork and pork-related products originating from Luzon.
Bohol Governor Arthur Yap, Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and Siquijor Governor Zaldy Villa also imposed the same policy of temporarily banning meat and meat products derived from pigs from the northern Philippines.
About 58 provinces out of 81 in the country are protecting their hog industry by imposing the ban.
“There is a high risk of contaminating the local hog industry run by backyard farmers who augment their feeds with leftover food collected from different food service establishments,” Dino said in an earlier statement sent to PNA.
Dino said in the memo that since the imposition of the ban, there has been a 10-percent surplus in the supply of pork in the region.
He also noted a stability in pork prices as shown in the price monitoring done by the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division of the Department of Agriculture Region 7 (AMAD-DA 7) from July 5 to October 2 this year. (PNA)
