The Department of Agriculture (DA) believes that access to more funding sources for its programs against African swine fever (ASF) will be facilitated after the country was declared in a state of calamity because of it.
It will be recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte announced a state of calamity to stop the ASF from affecting the country in 2019.
It also aims to repopulate pigs and lower the price of pork in the market.
“There will be more resources. When we say resources a variety of government assets from farms, equipment, facilities as well as manpower and personnel so maraming tulong tulong, local government units, all instrumentalities of government,” explained Agriculture Secretary William Dar on Tuesday.
This includes the department’s pending request for P461 million for indemnification for those who have previously died of pigs due to ASF.
For those whose pigs died due to such a disease, insurance will be provided and not cash.
“Yes that has been announced through the insurance system at yung mga commercial hog raisers ay merong premium na babayaran. 22% of that will be paid by the government as an incentive,” he said.
DA’s access to funds against ASF easier due to state of calamity: Dar
But some hog raisers are not happy with this.
It is said that they have been calling for a long time for the declaration of a state of national calamity to give P10,000 per culled pig.
“Yung kanyang insurance walang gustong kumuha nun, yung kanyang pagpapautang para sa repopulation, walang gustong mangutang dahil sa African swine fever,” said kay Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines Vice President Nicanor Briones.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Tariff Commission is studying an agricultural group’s request to increase the tariff on imported pork.
The Agricultural Industry Association (Sinag) has asked the commission to raise the tariff to 40 percent for in-quota or your minimum access volume entries to be charged by the lower tariff this year.
About 44 percent of the request is for out-quota or those that exceed the minimum access volume.
It even agreed that the Senate and the Department of Finance would make the tariff only 15 to 20 percent for the in-quota and 20 to 25 percent for the out-quota.
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