CEBU Governor Gwendolyn Garcia disputed the statement issued earlier by the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) about the existence of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the three barangays in Carcar City, southern Cebu.
Garcia questioned why there were no widespread hog deaths in Carcar if BAI’s claim was true.
The governor’s assertion also puzzled Department of Agriculture (DA 7) Executive Director Angel Enriquez during their meeting at the Capitol on Wednesday, April 19.
“The Carcar City case actually proved that you do not have to kill, you do not have to cull, kay buhi man after one week,” Garcia said through Sugbo News, Capitol’s social media platform.
“After one week, walay namatay (no one died). What is the conclusion? Kon ila to gipatay, patay na gyod to (If they killed them, they have been already dead),” she added.
To recall, Garcia filed charges against the three officials from the BAI Central office and two others from the BAI Central Visayas office before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas last March 29 for allegedly disobeying her orders and refusing to work with the provincial government to implement the ASF-related policies in the province.
“The DA has to take a stand here. I am not saying, believe me. I am saying, take a second look and draw your own conclusion,” Garcia told Enriquez.
The BAI had already slaughtered 140 pigs within a 500-meter radius of where the ASF was detected in the first two barangays of Carcar before Garcia intervened.
Almost 6,000 pigs were waiting to be killed in Barangay Guadalupe when Garcia issued an order to halt the culling.
Garcia became more enraged with the BAI authorities for allowing the importation of pork meat.
Enriquez stated that she will have a national operations management meeting in Tacloban City later this month with the other DA regional executive directors and DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban.
She said she will inform Panganiban about the actual situation in Cebu, where it has been demonstrated that BAI's actions have resulted in the needless deaths of the local hog population. (PAC, TPT)