Cebu governor extends ban on pigs, pork-related products from Negros

Stock photo  | CDN Digital file

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia signed on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, her Executive Order (EO) No. 11 series of 2023, extending the temporary ban on the entry of live hogs, sows, piglets, boar semen, and pork-related products from Negros Island for 15 days.

This, as the EO No. 9 issued by the governor ordering the temporary ban on the entry of the same expires on Thursday, April 6.

READ: Cebu province implements own anti-ASF measures

Garcia, earlier, issued EO No. 10, and consequently, the government created its own surveillance team and its laboratories to distinguish ASF from Classical Swine Fever or Hog Cholera and other swine diseases.

The governor maintained that there was still a need to confer with the stakeholders of the local hog industry, including the mayors of the local government units belonging to Cebu, and the respective governors of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental to come up with a common protocol against ASF, Hog Cholera, and other swine diseases.

READ: Cebu guv sues 7 animal industry bureau execs over ASF

Cebu governor on culling

To recall, Garcia alleged that the zoning regulations and culling policies of the Bureau of Animal Industry, in place for almost four years, “have been proven ineffective in curbing the effects of ASF.

“[It] has instead, unjustifiably reduced the local supply of pigs to the prejudice of the local hog industry and the consuming public,” reads a portion of Garcia’s EO No. 11.

The Cebu governor called upon the police, coast guard, Cebu Port Authority, Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority, and component cities and municipalities in the province to monitor the strict compliance of her new EO.

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