Bohol issues ban vs hogs, pork 

meat products from Mindanao 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol Feb 8 (PIA)—Does the new executive order banning the entry of love hogs, frozen pork meat, pork related products and by-products, processed whether cooked or uncooked, canned pork products and frozen boar semen from mainland Mindanao into Bohol present a loophole enough for prohibited products to slip through? 

“What about Camiguin?” asks Ric Obedencio, upon reading Executive Order No 05 series of 2020 signed by Acting Governor Rene L. Relampagos February 4, 2020. 

A province part of Mindanao but is not physically connected to mainland Mindanao, Camiguin also has boats that regularly dock in the port of Jagna. 

While Camiguin is separate from the mainland and may have its own measures against the African Swine Fever (ASF), discounting a ban of pork from Camiguin may be the much abhorred infection from a keyhole which the disinfection did not reach. 

Considered a present and continuing threat to the P16 billion hog industry in Bohol as well as in the country, ASF has been confirmed to affect Region XI (Davao Region) after the reported death of over a thousand pigs. 

Considering its proximity and accessibility to Bohol, the disease is now taken as a major threat, thus the Province of Bohol is pursuing efforts to prevent the entry of the virus causing the disease to safeguard the hog industry and the foo security benefitting Bohol and the country, according to Relampagos in the EO. 

The EO then prohibits the entry of live hogs and frozen boar semen (from mainland Mindanao) without accompanying documents. 

Also prohibited is the entry of pork meat and port related products with or without documents, the entry of feeds sourced and produced in the specific affected areas in Mindanao as confirmed by the Bureau of Animal Industry. 

It can be recalled that Bohol Governor Arthur Yap also issued an Executive Order banning for 100 days the entry of live hogs, frozen boar semen, pork meat, pork related products whether cooked or raw, processed pork and its related products in August 2019. A supplementary EO in December expanded the entry prohibition for yet another 100 days. 

Since August 2019, Bohol local governments have put up stricter measures at port of entries and informed incoming passengers of the prohibition. 

According to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), to date, a total amount of P162, 315.00 of prohibited pork products have either been confiscated and destroyed by disposal, the figure possibly double if those returned to shipping origin were included in the count. 

Confiscations after the ASF EO ban include 67 kilos of chicharon, 252 small packs more and still 18 large packs all but confiscated and disposed according to agreed protocols. 

Authorities also confiscated some 25 kilos of chorizo, frozen meat and disposed of them while another 200 kilos of the same were sent back to its origins. 

The port officers also confiscated about 130 kilos of pork adobo, humba and pork paksiw, 75 kilos of lechon, pork intestine, pork barbecue, pork longaniza, siomai and pork siopao. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)