BACKYARD hog raisers in Carcar City, Cebu whose domestic hogs died of African swine fever (ASF) received compensation for their losses as the City Government allocated P4.7 million to aid them.
Mayor Mario Patricio Barcenas said in an interview with SunStar Cebu on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, that this was the City’s way to assist backyard hog raisers who were affected during the height of ASF.
“I made a sincere effort to assist them because, in reality, most of them borrowed a sizable sum of money because this is their livelihood,” Barcenas said in Cebuano and English.
The distribution of financial assistance was done last May 17, with around 470 affected backyard hog raisers receiving P10,000 per household.
Barcenas said they only reimbursed individuals who had a maximum of 20 pigs. If they had more than that, they were not considered backyard hog farmers.
The backyard hog raisers came from all the 15 barangays in the city, including Bolinawan, Buenavista, Calidngan, Can-asujan, Guadalupe, Liburon, Napo, Ocana, Perrelos, Poblacion I, Poblacion II, Poblacion III, Tuyom, Valencia and Valladolid.
“We estimate that more than 2,000 Carcaranons were affected but we compensated them per household,” said the mayor.
Limited
Barcenas said that they had to limit the assistance this time so that they could compensate all the affected backyard hog raisers whose hogs died due to ASF.
It can be recalled that the local government also provided compensation for each pig culled by the Bureau of Animal and Industry (BAI).
The compensation that was distributed on April 13, totaled to P477,000. The City Government paid P3,000 for a newborn pig, P7,000 for a fattener and P10,000 for a breeder.
According to the BAI protocol, all live hogs within a 500-meter radius of an ASF-infected area or farm must be culled in order to stop the virus’ spread. At least 300 pigs in Carcar City were culled last March 10.
No more deaths
Barcenas revealed they have not received further reports of deaths of live hogs since March.
He said that pigs in the city are safe as they are intensifying their efforts to prevent the spread of the illness through preventive measures conducted by the City Veterinary Office.
He added that the live hogs that were supposed to be culled by BAI turned out to be healthy and some became breeder pigs.
“I am happy that the other 700 pigs were not culled because if it really happened, I do not know where to get funds to compensate them,” he said.
Citing data from the City Veterinary Office, City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said in an interview on March 14 that the City’s hog industry, which includes backyard pig farming, pork meat, lechon and chicharron, earns P120 million to P150 million annually.