Senator Joel Villanueva on Sunday urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to prioritize programs that are aimed at eradicating the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak that is killing the Philippine local hog industry.
Villanueva made the call as he expressed apprehension over President Duterte’s signing of Executive Order 128, which would temporarily lower the tariffs on pork imports to resolve the country’s existing pork supply shortage, stabilize pork meat prices and minimize inflation rates.
“An imported virus is killing local pigs. Huwag po natin hayaan na ang sobra-sobrang pag-aangkat ng baboy ang papatay sa natitira nating hog industry (Let’s not allow a surplus of pork supply kill our own hog industry),” Villanueva said in a statement.
“This food crisis is a local problem which must have a local solution. In order of priority, unahin po natin ang pagsugpo sa ASF at pagtulong sa mga magbababoy (Let’s prioritize addressing the ASF and helping our hog raisers)…Our salvation cannot be found in foreign farms,” Villanueva stressed.
Villanueva said it was imperative for DA officials to supply senators with concrete answers on how they intend to solve the country’s ASF problem at the Senate Committee of the Whole’s hearing on food security issues and the alleged “tongpats” (kickback) scheme on pork importation on Monday, April 12.
“Iyan ang itatanong ko sa DA bukas. Ano ang farm-level solutions nyo? Maliban sa pag-alis ng tariff walls, ano ang farmgate interventions nyo? (I will ask those questions at the DA tomorrow. What are your farm-level solutions? Aside from removing tariff walls, what farm gate interventions do you have)?” the senator said.
In Bulacan alone, Villanueva said the pork production inventory was already down by one-third last year while swine production in the whole Central Luzon skidded to one-fourth in 2020.
“P8,000 po ang nawalang kita sa kada ulo ng baboy. Di hamak mas malaki po ito sa P1,000 na ayuda ng gobyerno kada ulo sa isang bahay (They lost P8,000 for each pig. Undoubtedly, this amount is higher than the P1,000 cash assistance the government is distributing in each home),” the senator lamented.
Senator Risa Hontiveros backed Villanueva’s call, saying that besides the alleged corruption in pork importation, it was also necessary to ask DA if they have any comprehensive or long-term plans to help local swine producers overcome the challenges that the massive pork importation will bring.
Hontiveros also said it was imperative to get from the DA the assurance that it is able to employ first border security to make sure that no ASF tainted imported pork would enter the country’s borders.
“ASF ang puno’t dulo ng supply crisis. Dapat paigtingin ang response dito (ASF is the main reason why we have a supply crisis. We need to strengthen our response against this outbreak),” she said in a separate statement.
Likewise, Hontiveros said she was expecting the government to support local hog raisers for repopulation, additional insurance coverage, biosafety measures and biosafety frontliners.
“Kung wala nito, baka hanggang matapos ang 2022 ay mag-iimport pa rin tayo at tuluyan nang mamatay ang (If they don't have this, we may be importing pork until 2022 and this could bring about the death of the) local hog industry,” she lamented.