Bulacan offers cash for rat tails

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines  – Rats are running for their lives in Bulacan.

The Bulacan provincial government has offered P30,000 for every 30,000 tails of crop-eating rats.

Launched initially in Baliwag and Pulilan towns, the province-wide anti-rat campaign would be in effect up to June.

Quoting Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado, the Department of Agriculture said P30,000 in cash would be given to the first barangay to catch and kill 30,000 rats per month in each town.

The second barangay would get P20,000, and the third, P10,000, the DA added.

Rats are proliferating in Bulacan amid the coming rice harvest, particularly in the rice-producing towns of San Ildefonso, San Miguel and San Rafael. Sixteen out of 24 towns in Bulacan have reported rat infestation.

The Bulacan provincial agricultural office (PAO) said the tails of the killed rats would suffice as proof during the competition.

PAO chief Gloria Carillo said the operation would alleviate increasing crop damage caused by rats.

“Rat control is a regular activity of farmers after the harvest season as they prepare for the next planting,” she said.

“According to data, the damage brought by these pesky rats is increasing and could lead to big losses,” she said.   – Ding Cervantes, Dino Balabo