VICTORIAS City Mayor Javi Benitez expressed dismay after the confiscated 8,000 trays of eggs worth P1.4 million at Bredco Port in Bacolod City on February 5 were destroyed.
Javi Benitez, who is the son of Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Benitez, in a Facebook story on Friday, February 10, said that he wants his sentiments known.
"Ang husto, husto. Ang sala, sala. Pero ang pagkaon nga para sa tawo, dapat para sa tawo. Kanugon sang pagsunog sang 24,000 nga itlog o 8,000 trays worth P1.4M sa Bacolod City," he said.
He added, "tani may mas maayo nga solusyon para diri. Pwede man i donar sa nagakagutman. Indi ko kaya maghipos lang, kinahanglan ko ihambal sa inyo tanan nga sentimento ko."
An estimated P1.4 million worth of eggs was seized by personnel of the Bureau of Animal Industry Veterinary Quarantine Service, the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Veterinary Offices of Negros Occidental and Bacolod, including the African Swine Fever (ASF) task force, at the Bredco Port, Bacolod City, on February 5.
City Veterinarian Ma. Agueda dela Torre said Friday the confiscated eggs were transported from Bantayan, Cebu, to the Bredco Port.
She said the driver of the truck failed to present pertinent documents to transport the eggs, adding that the confiscated items were burned and buried at the Bredco Port grounds.
Dela Torre noted that the confiscated eggs were scheduled to be delivered to Iloilo City.
Dela Torre said this is in compliance with the joint executive order of Bacolod City and Negros Occidental that safeguards the province from avian influenza.
On December 6, 2022, the Negros Occidental Provincial and Bacolod City Governments issued a joint executive order banning the entry of all live domestic and wild birds ready to lay pullets, and their products, including table eggs and manure.
The banned poultry products include those from Luzon, Panay, Guimaras, and Mindanao.
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez earlier said that on February 22, 2022, the DA through the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAl) through its Animal Disease Diagnosis and Reference Laboratory (BAI-ADDRL) conducted a test of affected birds in the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga using real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and were tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 strain, commonly known as "bird flu."
"Due to the continuous spread and increasing number of cases of the HPAI Subtype H5N1 in the country, there is a need to repeal an earlier executive order to establish clearer guidelines on the entry of all domestic and wild birds, and their products, including poultry meat, day old chicks, eggs, semen, and manure, from all regions in the Philippines into the province and the city to safeguard its poultry industry as well as to protect the general public from the ill effects of the bird flu disease," they said.