Senate Hearing on ASF!
USE PORK IMPORT TARIFFS
TO HELP LOCAL HOG RAISERS
On Monday, April 12, the Senate Committee of the Whole (COW) conducted a day-long hearing on the effects of the move by government to lower tariffs and increase the volume of importef pork as the African Swine Fever (ASF) had wiped out 38% of the total hog population of the country, estimated at 13-million heads.
I was one of the resource persons and while I was asked to present shortly before the end of the hearing at about 5 p.m., the Senators were eager to hear the inside story on how and why the ASF penetrated our quarantine borders.
Answers were also provided as to why the spread of the ASF was not contained even as it continues to affect farms in the country without let-up.
While I provided the Senators what I believed was an accurate account of the ASF problem as I saw it when I was DA Secretary and later as Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority, I also shared with them the “glimmer of hope” for the hog industry.
I proposed that since the EO expanding the MAV and lowering tariffs had been signed by President Duterte on the recommendation of the DA, strategies will have to be devised to cushion its negative impact on the industry to include:
1. Grant industry stakeholders like legitimate hog raisers associations the bigger allocation for pork importation under the MAV Plus and lower tariff;
2. Use tariff earnings from pork importation to boost the industry by providing interventions similar to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund of the Rice Tariffication Law;
3. Tariffs collected could be used in the establishment of the Hog Industry Recovery Fund to build and establish infrastructure to improve the local hog industry, including the establishment of bio-secure hog raising facilities such as the Hogstel Program;
4. Production subsidies by government for local poultry raisers like providing breeding farms with imported hatching eggs to produce quality and low-priced chicks which could mature in 30-days;
5. Production subsidies for fish cage farming, especially Bangus, in the coves and bays of Mindanao because farmed fish could be harvested in 6 months.
At the end my presentation, I emphasized two very important points which I asked the Senate to consider and act on through needed legislations:
1. The COVID 19 Pandemic has shown that global food supply chain could be disrupted and it is imperative that we intensify and fund our local food sufficiency program, especially such commodities as rice, chicken, fish, pork and beef;
2. The framers of our laws and policies must finally resolve the eternal conflict between Economic Policies and Agricultural Priorities. Our country’s Agricultural Priorities should never be made subservient to our Economic Policies. In fact, it should be the other way around. Our Economic Policies must be guided by our ultimate national goal to feed our people, spur rural development to address poverty and invigorate the local economy to create jobs and employment opportunities.
I have been asked to attend again the second hearing on Thursday during which I intend to present proposals on how to handle emerging risks on human and animal health which could threaten the country in the future.
Watch the video link: https://www.facebook.com/351448724937603/videos/233483005221390
(This video presentation of my testimony before the Senate Committeee of the Whole was culled from the day-long video recording made available through YouTube.)
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