Agriculture Secretary William Dar is open to the recommendation of legislators to declare a state of emergency due to the African swine fever (ASF) in a bid to help hog raisers.
Dar disclosed in the Laging Handa Briefing on Friday that the DA’s position and recommendation on the proposal is now being finalized and will be sent to Malacañang “anytime this week”.
Malacañang said President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to issue a decision but is always considering the suggestions of policymakers.
Spokesperson Harry Roque shared that the government is currently focusing on repopulation with sufficient budget, vaccines, and importation to augment supply.
Sec. Dar assured that assistance to ASF-affected hog raisers is continuous even if there is no state of emergency yet, with over a billion fund allocated for livestock and poultry program. Another Php 1.5 billion allocation is meant for Bantay ASF in the barangays.
“Php 2.6 billion available money. So we have realigned some of the money this year for this fight against the African swine fever and repopulating the hog industry,” Dar disclosed.
“We have secured from Landbank P15B, P12B from DBP, total of 27B as loan program to reinvigorate the hog industry,” he added.
Meanwhile, the official denied accusations of data manipulation to justify the importation of meat.
“That’s not true, we are not. Our data are transparently displayed can be shown anytime and we have basis for submitting and recommending the increase of MAV,” he countered. – Report from Ryan Lesigues
