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Thursday, April 20, 2006
City slaughterhouse 'dirty'
NO DOUBT Bacolod City is known for its world-class Masskara Festival. It has also been declared as one of the "Most Competitive Cities" in the country in terms of the quality of life.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia will also receive an award at the National Police Commission Friday after the City's Peace and Order Council (CPOC) was named one of the finalists for the "Best CPOC" in the country for 2004.
However, what the rest of the country and even many Bacolodnons did not know was that the city's abattoir is "one of the dirtiest in the country."
Until last Tuesday night when, GMA 7 the documentary Reporter's Notebook featured the Bacolod Slaughterhouse in the 2,000-square-meter lot in Barangay 35.
Reporter's Notebook host Maki Pulido said the city's slaughterhouse is not hygienic and not sanitized after she visited the area two weeks ago and saw for herself how the pigs were being slaughtered.
The Reporter's Notebook showed how the pigs were slaughtered as well as the state of the slaughterhouse itself. Close-up shots of the abattoir's floor, walls, and ceiling were featured as well as the lack of water, and the way the waste was allowed to flow into the river.
City Veterinarian Adelo Daroy attested to Pulido's claim.
Yesterday, Mayor Bing Leonardia immediately called for an emergency meeting at his office together with representatives from the newly formed Task Force Abattoir (TFA), City Market Monitoring Council (CMMC), City Health Office (CHO), City Veterinary Office (CVO) and Bacolod Slaughterhouse.
Daroy clarified that he never received any complaints of an outbreak of any disease linked to the animals slaughtered in the city abattoir.
"I know that our facilities and equipment including the layout of the building and the system of operations are not conducive for the required standards for a Double A abattoir. Yet, we don't have any choice but to live with it. What is important is that we see to it that all animals being slaughtered here everyday are healthy," he said.
Daroy, who has been in the service for 26 years, said that he is very, very strict in terms of ante and post mortem inspections of animals before and after slaughtering.
TF Abattoir chief Rogelio Balo, in a telephone interview, also disclosed that a total of P450,000, was immediately allotted for the speedy implementation of rehabilitation works in the existing slaughterhouse, while the City is also preparing for the opening of an abattoir in Barangay Handumanan to be classified as "Triple A" category before October this year.
Balo said they don't have any choice but to do corrective measures to address the "bad" impression caused by Reporter's Notebook, while the City is still using the existing slaughterhouse.
Balo also admitted that the existing slaughterhouse is not really ideal for its "Double A" category.
He said, though, that people should understand that the slaughterhouse in Barangay 35 was constructed in 1960 and still being used until now.
But when Mayor Leonardia made a comeback at City Hall last July 1, 2004, Balo said the mayor had already implemented some notable rehabilitation works such as the repair of the roofing, flushing of the drainage system and the use of pressurized hose.
"That's why in our own view, our existing slaughterhouse is not as worse, like what Reporter's Notebook had shown Tuesday night," Balo said.
On record, a total of 150 pigs and 50 cows and carabaos are being butchered everyday at the Bacolod slaughterhouse, giving the City about P1.2 million annually.
Eye opener
Despite the bad impression that the documentary caused, Balo and Daroy said it also served as an eye opener for them to really work for the betterment of the City's abattoir operations.
"It's high time to transfer to more hi-tech and modern slaughterhouse with waste-water treatment facilities," Balo said.
This is reportedly why Leonardia is fast-tracking a contract with a private firm in order to operate the mothballed slaughterhouse in Barangay Handumanan as soon as possible.
The Handumanan Slaughterhouse was constructed through the effort of former congressman John Orola Jr.
Although, it is equipped with modern facilities and equipment, it was not used for "political reasons."
This was after Orola sought reelection as the tandem of former mayor Luzviminda Valdez, Leonardia's noted political nemesis.
But because of Reporter's Notebook, the mayor was caught off-guard and left no choice but to look for an alternative slaughterhouse, the one in Handumanan.
This, because Leonardia admitted that constructing a new slaughterhouse will cost the City as much as P54 million.
But the Handumanan slaughterhouse, the mayor said,"At least an operator will only spend minimal cost in rehabilitating some of the deteriorating facilities and equipment."
Unfair
Despite attesting to Pulido's report, Daroy still found the entire documentary report unfair.
He said, "it's very unfair to tag the Bacolod slaughterhouse as the dirtiest abattoir in the country considering that it was only compared with the two modern slaughterhouses in Negros, the one in Victorias City and the other in La Castellana."
(April 20, 2006 issue)
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