Senate Majority Floor Leader Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri appealed to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte today (April 19) to “reconsider” his order reducing the tariffs on imported pork products.
The President signed Executive Order (EO) No. 128 on April 7.
Senator Zubiri said at the Laging Handa public briefing that the signed EO will unduly burden local hog raisers whose livestock are affected by African Swine Fever (ASF). He pointed out that the reduction of tariffs encouraging importers to bring in pork products is a “band-aid solution” to the ASF problem.
“Kung magpa-import po tayo nang pa-import, ang mamamatay po rito ay ang ating magsasaka.”
[If we continue to import (pork products), our local pork industry will die].
Zubiri said almost 40% of the pork industry is affected by the disease and that almost ₱60 billion has been lost due to ASF. He added that they discussed the close monitoring of smuggled pork products with the Department of Agriculture in March 2019.
He emphasized that the government must strengthen various programs to boost the local pork industry.
Report from Patrick De Jesus/NGS-jlo
Watch the PTV video report below:
