• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental and Bacolod City have imposed a total ban on the entry of live hogs, sows, piglets, boar semen, pork and its related products from Cebu and Bantayan Island.
This is after Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia issued an executive order which called for a temporary ban on the entry of live hogs, sows, piglets, boar semen, pork and its related products, from Negros Island to Cebu, which took effect from March 4 until April 5.
Garcia said that the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Animal Disease Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory confirmed the detection of ASF viral DNA in blood samples obtained from pigs being kept at the barangay stockyards, together with pigs originating from Negros Island, in Carcar City, Cebu.
With the detection of an ASF case in Carcar City, the joint executive order signed by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, imposes a total ban on entry of live pigs, boar semen, pork and its related products from Cebu, Camotes and Bantayan Islands, Guimaras, Panay Island, Region 8, Luzon, Mindanao, as well as other ASF affected countries, as declared by DA (Department of Agriculture).
Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz also maintained that Negros Occidental remains ASF-free, as he dismissed the claims of Cebu as a fallacy.
“The evidence is in Carcar, Cebu. It’s like you commit something wrong and blame it on someone,” he pointed out.
Diaz maintained that there is no reason for the impairment or restrictions of transportation of basic good such as pork as these are food products. “This is a legal violation,” he also said.
He stressed that Cebu province should reconsider its executive order banning the entry of pork and pork products from Negros island as the Department of Agriculture has not classified Negros Occidental as infected with ASF.
“This is a matter of food security of other provinces,” he pointed out.
Even during the pandemic period, Diaz recalled that it was already been made clear that unless there are health and public safety reasons, “we cannot stop on the transportation of goods, especially food, from entering a locality.”
“They should think twice before banning Negros because they still need the food that Negros produces,” he further stressed.*
