(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte has already approved the release of a P78 million emergency fund that the Department of Agriculture will use to effectively manage, control, and contain the threat of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the country.
President Rodrigo Duterte approved the fund during last week’s cabinet meeting. The fund will be used for “biosecurity and quarantine operations, disease monitoring and surveillance, upgrading of laboratories, capacity-building, and other disease control measures” according to a release from the Department of Agriculture
-National ASF Task Force set to convene to adress ASF problem-
The National ASF Task Force (NATF) chaired by the President is also set to convene and flesh out inter-agency coordination, in partnership with concerned local government units (LGUs) and the private sector.
The Department of Agriculture serves as the vice chair and lead agency of the NATF.
Members of the Task Force initially include Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III (DOF), Foreign Affairs SecretaryTeodoro Locsin, Jr. (DFA), Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año (DILG), Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu (DENR), Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez (DTI), Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (DND), Wendel Avisado of the Department of Budget and Management), and Arthur Tugade (DOTr), and National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDDRRMC) Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad.
The agriculture has already oriented its regional directors in Luzon on the African Swine Fever (ASF) amid the confirmation of an ASF outbreak in several areas in Bulacan and Rizal.
The DA regional directors were provided guidelines on how to manage, contain and control the disease.
Dar earlier said that the ASF was already contained in Barangay Pritil, Guiguinto, Bulacan; and in several barangays in Rodriguez, San Mateo, and Antipolo, Rizal — and not in the entire country.
He also appealed to the media and general public not to ignite fears on ASF.
The DA said “unverified and unvalidated reports could create an irreversible damage to the country’s P260-billion swine industry that provides and sustains the livelihood of millions of Filipino families.”
“Around two-thirds or 65 percent of the industry is contributed by small backyard raisers,” Dar said.
He said that 7,416 pigs in the one-kilometer radius in ASF areas in Rizal and Bulacan have already been depopulated, following the 1-7-10 protocol of the Department of Agriculture to manage, contain and control the spread of the disease.
