BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Travelers from Panay Island entering this city and Negros Occidental are being strictly screened.
Personnel from the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO), Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) – Maritime Group are enforcing the entry ban on all pork products amid concerns over the African Swine Fever (ASF).
NOCPPO spokesperson, Police Lieutenant Judesses Catalogo, said that so far, the NOCPPO, BCPO, and PNP – Maritime Group are doing a good job. Several shipments of pork products have already been intercepted.
Personnel deployed at the BREDCO and Banago ports in Bacolod City are also the same cops who have previously carried out the province’s COVID-19 protocols.
Catalogo also pointed out that neighboring Iloilo province is also screening Negros-bound passengers prior to boarding ships, and people are now aware that bringing pork products into Negros Occidental is strictly prohibited.
Earlier, provincial administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, sent a request to NOCPPO for additional police personnel to be assigned at Bacolod City’s BREDCO and Banago ports as part of protocols to prevent the entry of ASF in the province.
Diaz said the provincial government is continuously intensifying its campaign against the entry of ASF into the province.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and Mayor Albee Benitez earlier issued Joint Executive No. 1, creating the Joint African Swine Fever Task Force, to prevent the entry into Bacolod City and Negros Occidental of live pigs, boar semen, pork, and pork products from places affected by ASF.
Negros Occidental has a P6-billion swine industry./PN
