Talisay abattoir to earn this year

Although Talisay City's slaughterhouse has been losing since it opened for business last May, city legal officer Aurora Econg is confident it will bring income to the city this year.

For the first four months since it opened the abattoir has incurred losses of at least P1, 213,839.62.

Econg explained that the city has to subsidize the salaries of workers on job orders, maintenance and operating expenses and gasoline allocation since the facility "started from the scratch."

But, this year the city has allocated P5 million for the said facility to function until such time it can operate using its own income.

Econg said that from June to December last year the abattoir showed a total income of P4.5 million. Not counting its cost, the slaughterhouse averages an income of more than P600,000 per month, a far cry from the contractor's proposal to rent it for P45,000 per month.

The contractor, EVM Bernardo, earlier offered the city to manage the facility but the city turned it down saying the new facility can be a good enterprise.

More than 400 heads of pigs, cattle and goats, are slaughtered in the abattoir everyday. The city charges P90 for each pig, P200 for each cow, and P20 for each goat. This is aside from the income the city gets from the poultry farm products and chickens, which are also slaughtered there.

And because the abattoir boasts clean and efficient facilities, clients from the neighboring towns also bring their livestock there.

The Talisay City government spent P50 million for the construction of the new abattoir in December 2002. - Liv G. Campo