Mayor dismayed over destruction of P1.4 million eggs

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The destruction of 240,000 pieces of eggs valued at P1.4 million as part of the precautionary measures of the provincial and city governments of Negros Occidental and Bacolod, respectively, against avian influenza or bird flu has dismayed the mayor of Victorias City.

Mayor Juan Miguel Benitez, president of the Association of Chief Executives in Negros Occidental, said the eggs should have been donated to the poor who have little to eat.

Benitez is a son of Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez.

The eggs, which came from Bantayan, Cebu, were  seized and burned on Feb. 5 by a joint team of the Negros Occidental and Bacolod City veterinary offices as well as of the Bureau of Animal Industry-Western Visayas

Bacolod chief veterinarian Maria Agueda dela Torre said that documents presented for the eggs were fake.

Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson supported the decision of the Bacolod City Veterinary Office to destroy the eggs.

Negros Occidental has imposed a total ban on the entry of live birds and poultry products such as meat and eggs from bird flu-affected areas including Panay and Guimaras as well as Luzon and Mindanao.

The province has an P8-billion poultry industry and is among the top poultry producers in the country.

“We can’t afford to compromise the livelihood of thousands of Negrense poultry raisers,” Bacolod legal officer Romeo Carlos Ting Jr. said in a statement.

Negros Occidental remains free from avian influenza.