ILOILO City – Aklan’s intensified campaign against the African swine fever (ASF) resulted in the confiscation of more or less eight tons of pork products from August 2019 to December 2020, the Provincial Veterinary Office said on Tuesday.
Provincial Veterinarian Ma. Cyrosa Leen Mabel Siñel said 24/7 quarantine checkpoints in four border areas of Aklan have been established after ASF cases were reported in Luzon in August 2019.
The checkpoints were situated in the municipalities of Altavas, Nabas-Pandan, Buruanga-Libertad, and the Caticlan Jetty Port.
“In Region 6 (Western Visayas), we were the first to establish the quarantine checkpoints against ASF,” Siñel said in a phone interview.
The latest confiscation was the 730 kilograms of assorted processed meat products at the Caticlan Port early morning of April 24.
The goods were from Parañaque, Manila, and were shipped via a roll-on, roll-off vessel. The items have been repacked for distribution and were supposed to be transported to Roxas City, Capiz.
The items were burned after their issued certificate of a reshipment of the products to Luzon was ignored and the supplier failed to show up.
The more or less eight tons of confiscated items were mostly from Chinese and Korean tourists bound for Boracay and who opted to bring with them products from their countries.
Aklan is now in the process of crafting an ordinance to penalize those who bring pork products to the province from ASF-infected areas.PNA/PN
