BACOLOD City – The city government of Bago is eyeing financial assistance to hog raisers affected by hog deaths.
Mayor Nicholas Torres said they continue to receive reports on hog deaths from backyard hog raisers.
“That is why nagtawag kami sa amon IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force), together with our DRRMC (Disaster Risk Reduction and Management), for an emergency meeting. Dira ko maman-an kung ano klase assistance ang mahatag namon,” Torres said.
The city government was set to hold an emergency yesterday afternoon, June 5.
The mayor added the city also consider declaring an epidemic but it has to meet the guidelines set by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), which include 30 percent hog deaths of the total swine population.
There were 22,000 total backyard hogs, but the city has yet to gather data for the commercial hog population as of this writing.
Earlier, Negros Occidental’s Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said the provincial government also allotted an initial P4 million as financial assistance to hog raisers affected by swine diseases.
Bago City is one of the local governments with the highest number of hog deaths in the province.
“Wala results of [African] Swine Flu (ASF), everything that comes back to us is hog cholera,” Torres said.
He added: “But like the governor is telling us, maskin wala sang confirmatory nga ASF, we will treat this like ASF,”
Here, the mayor reminded residents that the city does not allow the dumping of animal carcasses in bodies of water, and anyone caught will be penalized./PN
