(Eagle News)–Senator Sonny Angara on Wednesday, Sept. 18, urged the government to tap into the Department of Agriculture’s P1 billion in Quick Response Funds to stop the spread of the African Swine Fever.
Angara, chair of the Senate finance panel, said the QRF were under the P20 billion National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund, more commonly known as the Calamity Fund, in the General Appropriations Act for 2020.
“This ASF is by all accounts a calamity. It may not have the dramatic footage that typhoons create, but in terms of damage to livelihood, and the households affected, it is just as damaging,” Angara said.
Angara noted that it was only on September 10 that the Department of Budget and Management released P82.5 million to the DA to carry out measures to “arrest and abate” the spread of ASF.
Angara said that 35 percent of the amount or P32 million will be spent to boost security screening measures at the international airports.
Another P28 million, he said, will go to laboratory testing of meat and meat products.
“It is good that we’re strengthening our quarantine curtains, but what we lack are funds to fight ASF on the ground lalo na ngayon na fully mobilized na ang mga local governments. In the future, ito siguro ang mangangailangan ng pondo,” he said. With a report from Meanne Corvera