By Calvin Cordova
CEBU CITY — Pork and pork-related products coming from Cebu City may be banned in Bohol.
This after hog raisers and the Bohol provincial government expressed concern that Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella had issued an executive order (EO) lifting on a ban on all pork and pork products from Luzon and Mindanao.
Early this year, pork and pork-related products coming from areas infected with African Swine Fever (ASF) were banned from entering Cebu.
But last April 28, Labella issued EO 72 that allowed the entry into the city of pork and pork-related products from Luzon and Mindanao that had not been affected by ASF as identified by the Department of Agriculture.
Pork and pork-related products coming from ASF-free areas will be allowed entry to the city as long as the requirements are complied, the EO stated.
Labella said lifting the partial ban was meant “to prevent any shortage in supply.”
And this has left Bohol government officials and hog raisers seriously concerned.
“We are worried. Cebu hogs now have a big risk of being infected with ASF due to the lifting the ban of pigs from General Santos and South Cotabato. Bohol hog producers are now worried that it might also risk our livestock. To remove the risk, we are considering now banning Cebu pork and pork products to enter Bohol island,” Ferdinand Cuyno, one of the hog raisers in Bohol, said in a statement.
Cuyno relayed that Bohol Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Stella Lapis was also worried with the lifting of the ban in Cebu City since the province was also sourcing a lot of its pork and pork-related product requirements from Cebu.
Rolando E. Tambago, president of the Central Visayas Pork Producers Cooperative (CeViPPCo), has also called on Labella to reconsider the decision to lift the ban to protect the P11-billion hog industry in Cebu Province.
Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia was scheduled to preside over a meeting yesterday with the ASF Task Force to discuss the matter.