DILG to LGUs: Ensure local policies to mitigate ASF spread aligned with national gov’t’s

(Eagle News) — The Department of the Interior and Local Government has urged local government units to ensure their policies to mitigate the spread of the African Swine Fever are aligned with the national government’s.

The DILG made the statement after DILG Officer-in-Charge Bernardo Florece Jr. urged LGUs to conduct an “immediate review” of LGU executive orders and ensure they follow the nationwide policy on the unhampered flow of cargoes emphasized in an Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) resolution and Presidential Administrative Order No. 22.

Under IATF-EID Resolution No. 14, there should be an unimpeded movement of all types of food and non-food cargo.

Presidential Administrative Order No. 22, on the other hand, emphasized the need for LGUs to comply with the Department of Agriculture’s ASF National Zoning and Movement Plan.

Florece said failure to comply could lead to sanctions, including the issuance of show cause orders.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar has said the Philippines was under a state of calamity because of an increase in the prices of pork, chicken, vegetables, and fruit due to ASF in farms, among others.