Labella urged: Follow Capitol’s lead in pork ban of ASF areas

The Cebu City Council conducted an online special session today, May 4, where they passed a resolution urging Mayor Edgardo Labella to follow the Cebu Provincial government’s lead to continue banning pork from anti-swine fever hit areas in the country. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council on Monday, May 4, 2020, passed a resolution urging Mayor Edgardo Labella to follow Cebu Province’s lead on continuing to ban pork from areas in the country hit with African Swine Fever (ASF).

Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia sponsored the resolution, which was unanimously approved during the council’s special online session on Monday, May 4, 2020.

Garcia informed the legislative body of Governor Gwendolyn Garcia’s request to Labella, asking the mayor to reconsider his decision in allowing pork products and by-products from Luzon, Mindanao, and Eastern Visayas to enter the city.

Read more: Gwen fears Labella’s lifting of pork ban would endanger Cebu’s P11B hog industry

“I received a call from Governor Garcia regarding the lifting of the ban of entry of pigs and pork in Cebu City. And according to the governor, it is very important to continue the ban,” said Councilor Garcia.

“Because ASF is very contagious and if it hits a farm, it will take in two or three years’ time before it can recover. That’s how grave it is. And it is still circulating in Luzon and Mindanao,” he added.

Cebu, the country’s fourth-largest producer of pork products, remains free of any documented cases of ASF.

Labella on May 1 decided to lift the ban of entry for pork products and by-products, and pigs coming from Mindanao, a development that made Governor Garcia express her concern that it could endanger the province’s P11-billion hog industry./dbs