Only hog raisers can stop ASF

By Leonardo Micua

THE African Swine Fever (ASF) appears to be spreading fast in Pangasinan with hogs in six to 8 barangays already afflicted as of January 22. This is all because of the greed of some people out there to earn a fast buck by selling infected hogs they bought at exceptionally low prices in ASF infected areas to backyard hog raisers without regard to the adverse consequences to their province mates and neighbors.

As of this writing, the Sangguniang Bayan of Binmaley is poised to pass a resolution declaring the whole town under the state of calamity as ASF already afflicted hogs in four of its barangays. The municipality of Calasiao already temporarily shut down its livestock market, wary of hogs infected by ASF that could be brought to the area to be sold.

ASF also seemed to have sneaked into Barangay Carael in Dagupan City, located at the western bank of the Calmay River. This explains the presence of quarantine checkpoints along the road leading to Bonuan and another at the boundary of Calasiao and Dagupan along Jose de Venecia Highway. However, according to our mole, both are unmanned at night.

Governor Amado Espino III is serious in stumping out ASF and is set to put up a reward system for anyone who reports any person found to have brought in infected hogs sourced from other provinces past established checkpoints, and to impose harsher penalties on the culprits.

Methinks, we can get by past ASF through prompt reporting of hogs in farms or backyards that are already showing symptoms of the disease: lost appetite to eat, reddish ears and skin, have fever and cold.    

As things happen today and to avoid a complete loss, a backyard raiser quickly has the sick pig butchered and its meat sold in the neighborhood even on credit. This practice, according to the Department of Agriculture, helps spread the ASF virus.

Bottom line: Only the backyard hog raisers themselves who can stop ASF in their barangays.

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Our trip to Bangkok, Thailand last weekend debunked the information dished out by some reporters in the past that the city’s traffic is more dizzying than Metro Manila’s. I can still recall one telling me that taxi drivers have ready pee bags inside their cabs for their passengers to relieve themselves off in case they are caught in the middle of an almost endless traffic jam.

We did not see any traffic snarl, except when we motored to Icon Siam, which is Bangkok’s mother of malls built sometime in late 2018. But that was only for a moment. It is Metro Manila, despite its modern skyways, that still has the most congested roads throughout Southeast Asia.    

The Thais may have already solved their traffic woes by building more roads and modern superhighways at the cost of billions of Bhats, that lead to the capital Bangkok. At the same time, the air in Bangkok is much cleaner than in Metro Manila as most taxis, including the motorized three-wheeled taxis “Tuk-tuk”, use LPG for fuel. instead of gasoline or diesel.

I rode one of the Altis taxis at past 9:00 p.m. to go back to our hotel as I was separated from our group (you may say lost) at Icon Siam Mall, moments after feasting on Thai spicy delicacies at the mall’s floating market. I did not notice any pee bag inside the cab and neither was there a traffic build up along the way. The only problem was the driver did not speak English.

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Before our deadline, I heard Bombo Radyo’s Bogs Torribio giving a mouthful against a man, possibly a traffic enforcer, who directed him (with a sound of authority) to move his car away from a road side parking area that was to be used later by another vehicle, whose driver allegedly forked over a certain sum as parking fee. He asked the man why he was being shooed away when he (Bogs) is an Ilocano but can also afford the “fee”. He got no answer. In his radio program, he asked: Where is the supposed parking fee going?  

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