Government allocates P1 B for hog raisers affected by ASF

MANILA, Philippines — The government is allocating P1 billion to pay hog raisers whose pigs were culled due to African swine fever (ASF), a week after the Department of Agriculture (DA) admitted a lack of funds to help raisers recover their losses.

During the House committee on agriculture and food inquiry on Wednesday, Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan said the DA has secured the P1 billion that will be used to indemnify hog raisers.

“During the last Cabinet meeting, we were very happy when we raised it and they approved it because we all know how hard it is to convince members of the Cabinet,” Cayanan said during the hearing.

“It was Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Wendel Avisado who OK’d our proposal and said there is money that they can give us. But the motion came from finance chief Carlos Dominguez,” he added.

Earlier, Agriculture Secretary William Dar had said his department can only provide loans for affected hog raisers, but not reimbursement for pigs that died of the disease or were culled.

The approval of the funds coincided with the activation of the National ASF Task Force to help contain the virus. The task force is headed by President Duterte.

The indemnification fund will be used for backyard raisers who comprise 65 percent of hog raisers in the country.

“The backyard raisers are the ones really affected. The P1 billion is on the assumption that only up to five percent of the total hog population will be affected by ASF,” Cayanan said.?Based on computations that the DA is anticipating five percent to be affected, about 300,000 hogs can be covered by the P1-billion indemnification fund.

“Our commercial raisers are not yet affected because they have stricter biosecurity measures and we hope that they will not be affected,” he added.

Currently, the DA is giving P3,500 to every affected hog raiser. But the actual average market value could reach as high as P10,000.

Further, the fund will solely be used to pay off hog raisers and this does not include other laboratory and mitigation measures.?DBM director Cristy Clasara also said the DA cannot utilize and tap its quick response fund (QRF), as this does not cover release of cash.

The QRF is normally used during calamities like typhoons and is tapped to provide seeds and other relief for affected farmers.

“The P1 billion will be taken from the unprogrammed funds,” Clasara said.

She added that a separate P18 million has also been approved by the President and is set for release to indemnify raisers from Rizal alone.

Another P5 million is also in the process of approval to be allocated to Region 3 hog raisers. The total amount is part of the government’s contingency funds.

On top of the P1 billion, the DA-Bureau of Animal Industry will also spend P78 million in emergency funds for biosecurity and quarantine operations, disease monitoring and surveillance, upgrading of laboratories, capacity-building and other disease control measures.

In Malolos, Bulacan, officials are mum on reports that more than 1,000 pigs have been culled in Pandi town, allegedly due to ASF.

A news report on ABS-CBN said the National Bureau of Investigation is investigating the culling of livestock worth at least P20 million.

Owner May Gonzalez claimed the killing of her livestock was ordered by the municipal veterinarian of Pandi and provincial veterinarian of Bulacan, despite blood samples of her livestock which yielded “Viral DNA for African swine fever not detected.”

The STAR tried to confirm the incident with Ronnie Domingo, executive director of the BAI, who replied that he would check with the regional laboratory.

‘Malolos pork safe’

Meanwhile, Malolos City Mayor Gilbert Gatchalian, together with members of the Sangguniang Panlusod, led a boodle fight at the public market yesterday which featured seven roasted pigs and was participated in by market customers and tenants.

Gatchalian said that blood samples from dead pigs in Barangays Panasahan, Tikay and Santor last month have been sent to Europe for analysis for the presence of ASF. While waiting for the results, the mayor has created a task force to monitor all piggeries in the city. – With Raymund Catindig, Ramon Efren Lazaro