A dire warning from SINAG

By Leonardo Micua

 

OCCASIONED by the visit to Pangasinan of Agriculture Secretary William Dar last Friday (November 6), there is a dire warning from the Pangasinan-based Samahan ng Industriya at Agrikultura (SINAG) that that it may go to court for failure of DA to implement the quarantine provision of Republic Act 10611.

Rosendo So’s Oct. 26 letter to Secretary Dar reminded the good Secretary that RA 10611 or the Safety Act of 2013, was enacted 13 years ago and it mandates the construction “of our border inspection facilities.”

Engr. So claimed that despite the fact that the Duterte government has allocated PhP 2 billion last December for the construction of the first border quarantine facility, not a single one was established to date, contrary to what was directed by RA 10611.

He squarely blamed the spread of the African Swine Fever (ASF) and the increasing pork prices, other animal/aquatic diseases and plant diseases (avian flu, FMD, salmonella, weevil (bukbok) for rice) to the continuous inability to thoroughly examine imported agricultural and food products at our country’s ports.

According to Engr. So, without any quarantine control at the first port of entry, the country will remain vulnerable to COVID-19, ASF, avian flu and even FMD since imports of all kind—frozen, chilled, processed, cooked or raw are easily brought in to the country.

It is most ironic, according to Engr. So, that the DA remains ambivalent, being strict in the movement of locally produced agricultural products but allows the unhampered entry of agricultural imports.

A case in point is the difficulty of sourcing hogs from Mindanao and the Visayas, the only ASF-free areas remaining in the country. A report said that there is a need to bring 50,000 hogs weekly to Manila from Mindanao and the Visayas but the DA is not exerting efforts to ease the restrictions in transporting the commodity.

Transporting these hogs to Manila is not an easy task because of the distance, plus the wide water to be crossed, hence there is a need for help from DA Secretary Dar.

Many are asking whether DA just wants us in Luzon to eat the tasteless imported chilled products from China instead of helping move hogs from the ASF-free Mindanao and the Visayas to the Manila port.

Relative to this, it is likely that most Filipinos will go pork-less by Christmas this year because there  are practically no more pigs to be butchered in local slaughterhouses. Only a few will be coming from a few pocket areas not yet infected by ASF.

If you have not been to the market during the last few days, you will not know that a kilo of pork now sells from P300 and up. And you are lucky if you can find one in any of the meat stall near you. That is why, the planned class suit by SINAG against DA really makes sense.

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The recent memorandum circular of DILG for the resumption of road clearing on November 16 has put many sleeping and do-nothing local executives almost fall from their swivel chairs.

Some of them not only tolerated vendors to sell along sidewalks but even closed entire roads in a bid to endear them to their constituents during the pandemic.

A few of them actually already positioned baratillo stalls on the sidewalk  as early as August or even before in long anticipation of their fiestas but because of the directive of Secretary Ano, are now compromised to relocate the same to another place.

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P.S. Many thanks to all those who greeted me on my birthday today on Facebook. We assure you that our spirit is still all-time high but a little bit somber as we lost our dear granddaughter Chammy due to an unfortunate incident in Australia sometime in July. Chammy would have been nine years old on November 7, the day next to my birthday.

Anyway, her video footage happily singing to me during my birthday last year was just uploaded to us by her mother, Dr. Maryjane Quevido Micua. Every year, she always sang on my natal day and also to her Lola Lilia. She did this always every time to her two cousins living in New Zealand when they celebrate their birthdays too.

You see, we are a close-knit family even if we are miles and miles apart.

Because of the many happy memories she left us, we know Chammy is still with us.  Happy birthday in heaven, Mary Therese!

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