Kiko reiterates appeal: Declare state of calamity due to ASF

Senator Kiko Pangilinan on Sunday appealed anew to Malacañang to declare a state of calamity due to the African swine fever (ASF).

“For the sake of consumers, for the sake local farmers, for the sake of the local hog industry, please declare a state of calamity and provide the necessary funding to address this crisis,” he said in a media interview.

Pangilinan said that the ASF caused the culling of millions of pigs, and the near-collapse of the hog industry, 70 percent of which consist of backyard hog-raisers.

“Nagawa na rin natin ito noong 1995 sa foot-and-mouth disease, at nung ako ay food security secretary noong 2014 sa cocolisap infestation. After six months bumaba from 57 hotspots to 1 hotspot pagkatapos ng state of calamity declaration,” he said.

“Pag nasolusyunan ang African swine fever, babalik ang sigla ng local hog industry, at OK rin tayong mga consumer dahil mas tiyak ang quality. Mas maganda ang sariwa at bagong katay kaysa imported na frozen na baboy,” he added.

A declaration of a state of calamity will unlock billions of pesos in calamity funds that can be used to indemnify hog raisers who had to cull their pigs, to pay for temporarily under-worked hog raisers for work as biosafety officers, and other similar efforts to help revive the industry, Pangilinan said.

“Dagdag na kita ito sa kanila habang bumabangon ang industriya,” he said.

The former food security secretary said that while importation is a stop-gap measure for the insufficient pork supply due to ASF, massive pork importation is not the solution to the disease.

“Hindi tayo tutol sa importation dahil kulang nga ang supply ng baboy. Pero hindi yung sobra-sobra na papatayin mo pa ang industriya ng pagbababoy natin na dapang-dapa na rin,” he said.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)