CEBU CITY – Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia on Wednesday, March 29, filed charges against some officials of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) for purportedly defying her orders and refusing to coordinate with the provincial government in implementing African Swine Fever (ASF)-related policies in the province.
LAWYERS Isis Capangpangan and Neil Ediza of the Cebu Provincial Legal Office show the complaint-affidavit of Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia who filed charges against officials of the Bureau of Animal Industry for allegedly defying her orders and refusing to coordinate with the provincial government in implementing African Swine Fever (ASF)-related policies in the province. (Cebu PIO)
The governor, through lawyers Neil Ediza and Isis Capangpangan of the Provincial Legal Office, filed the charges against Paul Limson, Samuel Joseph Castro, Joshua Cruz, Dr. Miriam Lopez Vito, and Dr. Daniel Ventura Jr. before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.
Garcia accused the respondents of violating Republic Act (RA) 3019, otherwise known as Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Sections 2C, 25B, and 27 of RA 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, and Articles 19, 20, and 21 of the New Civil Code.
Limson is the director of BAI, while Castro is BAI deputy program coordinator. Cruz is BAI coordinator on ASF, Vito is from the Regional Veterinary Quarantine Station, while Ventura is the coordinator on ASF of the Department of Agriculture-Region 7.
The governor is seeking the anti-graft office to penalize the respondents for defying her order to suspend culling of hogs in ASF-affected areas in Cebu.
Garcia said that it was early this month when BAI announced that ASF virus has been detected in the province of Cebu and raised the need for depopulation or culling of pigs located within 500 meters of affected areas to prevent the disease from spreading.
The governor accused BAI of failing to conduct differential diagnosis to validate if ASF virus is present in the localities of Carar and not any other virus or infection.
“BAI ruled to indiscriminately cull all pigs within 500 meters from the affected area. Worse, the agency did not verify as to where the samples, which allegedly tested positive, came from. They merely alleged that the blood samples were obtained from a slaughterhouse in Carcar in line with the regular ASF surveillance,” Garcia said in her complaint-affidavit.
Garcia said the culling policy in Barangay Can-asujan, Carar resulted in great loss to the livelihood of the raisers in the area.
She issued a memorandum on March 14 calling for the immediate stopping of culling of pigs within a 500-meter radius pending a deeper analysis of properly secured samples.
A separate memo by the governor also reminded national government agencies, especially the DA, to coordinate and ensure the participation of local government units in the planning and implementation of their projects or policies.
“Despite my orders, BAI personnel continued to implement their culling and zoning map police to the prejudice of the hog raisers not only in the City of Carcar, but in the whole province of Cebu,” Garcia said.
In her complaint, Garcia cited the pronouncement of Rolando Tambago, president of the Central Visayas Pork Producers Cooperative, that the country has already lost five million of its swine population but not purely due to actual infections but because of the implemented protocols of BAI.
“BAI also insists that there is an ASF outbreak in the province of Cebu and the culling policy is the most effective way to contain the virus. This side-sweeping statement of the BAI has an immediate impact on the livelihood of the Cebuanos,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the accused acted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith, or gross inexcusable negligence.
“With the whimsical acts of respondents, it could be well deduced that their culling policy is just an excuse for them to continue their importation of hogs and meat products from other countries, to which the respondents have control over the issuance of importation permits,” said Garcia.
The governor added that the indiscriminate culling of pigs is in violation of the right to due process of the hog owners.