The inclusion of a P1-billion Bio-Safe biosecurity enforcement program in the 2026 budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) will help boost the government’s anti-smuggling and food crisis program, Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said.

This particular line item in the 2026 budget, which is relatively new, will help control the entry of threats such as the African swine fever (ASF) and avian influenza, the senator said.

“The line item aims to strengthen disease surveillance, border controls, and on-ground enforcement against threats such as ASF and avian influenza. These outbreaks have previously driven up food prices and wiped out livelihoods,” said Pangilinan, a member of the bicameral conference committee on the 2026 national budget.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform, also said the DA’s Bio-Safe program includes biosafety, biosecurity, and surveillance (BSS&S) measures across agriculture (crops, livestock, poultry, and fisheries) in farms, laboratories, and facilities.

Through its BSS&S system, the agency issues containment protocols, updated surveillance, engineering controls in facilities, and standardized procedures for handling biological agents.

For instance, measures can include perimeter fencing, climate-controlled animal houses, waste management systems and shower areas for livestock.

“As they say, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ Every outbreak we fail to prevent becomes a huge price Filipino families are forced to pay,” Pangilinan said.

He noted that past food emergencies have shown that delayed response costs more than early prevention—both in public funds and in hunger.

ASF wiped out an estimated five (5) million pigs, caused at least ₱200-billion in losses, and decreased the national hog inventory by more than 20 percent.

This drove pork inflation to around 20 percent in 2021, keeping retail prices high and volatile in the years that followed.

While pork remained safe to eat, supply shocks and weak market controls left consumers paying more. Many farmers, especially backyard raisers, lost entire herds and breeding stock.

Avian influenza outbreaks also strained food security and farmer livelihoods. Since 2017, authorities have culled hundreds of thousands of poultry and recorded H5N1 cases in scores of farms across multiple regions, causing temporary shortages and localized spikes in chicken and egg prices.

“We always scramble after the damage is done. This budget seeks to stop the damage from happening at all,” Pangilinan said.

Moreover, he assured Bio-Safe will also indirectly but materially impact food smuggling by raising detection rate and tightening sanitary / phytosanitary biosecurity filters on imports. Its enforcement requires tight coordination between DA and Bureau of Customs (BOC), especially in economic sabotage cases.

“Our biosecurity spending must be paired with strict accountability to ensure funds translate into real protection on farms, ports, and borders,” Pangilinan said.