THE PROVINCIAL Veterinary (ProVet) Office has asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and police here to enforce the total ban on swine, pork, pork products, and by-products coming from Luzon and countries with African swine fever (ASF) cases.
In an interview Thursday, Antique ProVet chief, Dr. Romeo Magdato said since Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao issued Executive Order Number 139-A, series of 2019 implementing a total ban last November 18, his office has asked the DTI to include this in their weekly monitoring.
Magdato also said they requested all the 18 municipal police stations in the province to include in their checkpoints the transport of the swine, pork, pork products and by-products from Luzon and ASF-affected countries.
“The ProVet has not enough personnel to conduct quarantine checkpoints so we are requesting the police to help us,” he said.
The DTI and the police, Magdato added, are part of the ASF Crisis Management Task Force created through the issuance of Cadiao’s Executive Order 116 last September 26.
The governor also issued Executive Order Number 139 for the temporary ban of swine, pork, pork products and by-products sourced from countries or localities in the Philippines identified by the Department of Agriculture as positive for ASF last October 10.
The temporary ban is amended by the new Executive Order 139-A ordering a total ban to ensure that Antique will remain ASF-free and because all other provinces in Western Visayas have issued a total ban.(By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay)
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