Cebu bans entry of hogs, pork products from Mindanao; extends indefinitely ban for Luzon products

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Starting Thursday, February 13, 2020, Cebu province will already shut its borders from live hogs, pork and pork-related products coming from provinces in Mindanao for 90 days.

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said she will issue an Executive Order within today, Feb. 11, declaring the ban in the light of the African Swine Fever (ASF) situation there. The ban will take effect on Thursday.

But Garcia said the 90-day ban will not cover products from Davao Region (Region 11).

The governor said she has decided that the ban on the entry of pork products from Davao Region and Luzon, which will supposedly end on June 30, 2020, will have to be extended indefinitely.

“[The ban on the entry of pork products from] Davao Region is indefinite. It’s infected na man gud. All the rest of the regions in Mindanao, 90 days,” Garcia said in a press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

The Cebu provincial government has earlier banned the entry of live hogs, pork and pork-related products from Luzon and Davao Region due to the ASF outbreak reported in the provinces in those areas.

Garcia said she intended for the EO to be in effect two days after her signing in order to give consideration to those that are already in transit. She said most of the Mindanao-sourced pork in Cebu come from General Santos City.

During the meeting of the local chief executives with President Rodrigo Duterte in Pasay City on Monday, Feb. 10, Garcia said they were informed that the ASF outbreaks have continued to spread to several areas in Luzon.

“Well, contrary to previous pronouncement s of the DA (Department of Agriculture) that the ASF has been contained in Luzon, it has now spread to the north, to as far as Benguet. And worse, ASF is now present in Mindanao. Initially, in Davao Occidental,” Garcia said.

Despite the pork ban against Luzon and Mindanao, Garcia said the CeViPPCo has assured her that there is enough supply of pork for Cebuano households and that the ban will not cause a rise in the prices of pork products here.

Garcia earlier said that the ban on the entry of pork from the ASF-affected regions is to protect the P11 billion hog industry in Cebu province.

Although the ASF has no known effects to humans, it is considered as highly contagious and has 100 percent mortality rate among infected hogs. /rcg