DA urged: Name processed meat products with ASF

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture should identify and pinpoint the alleged processed meat products that tested positive for the African swine fever (ASF) virus “for the sake of transparency and consumer welfare,” an administration lawmaker said yesterday.

Quezon City Second District Rep. Precious Hipolito-Castelo asserted that it would be unfair for the DA to keep the general public guessing on which products are ASF-tainted, as this would “only fuel unnecessary ASF scare on all products that could affect supply and prices.”

“We don’t want this to happen, especially when millions of our countrymen are about to celebrate the Christmas season,” the vice chairman of the House of Representative’s committee on Metro Manila development justified.

Many Filipinos, especially in cities, buy canned goods and processed meat for Christmas.

Castelo said naming the contaminated goods would spare those that are not and provide the public with choices.

“The DA should also identify the goods not contaminated with ASF,” she added.

The neophyte lawmaker clarified that while ASF does not pose any threat to human health, it has alarmed several local government units that imposed a ban on contaminated meat products to protect their hog industries.

“So the DA should be transparent as public welfare and meat businesses are of paramount concern,” Castelo said.

“Doing so would also protect the industry not affected by ASF,” she added.

Earlier, the DA reported that several canned good and meat products tested positive for ASF virus but declined to name them.

Another administration lawmaker, Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera appealed to the country’s hog raisers to put public health and welfare over profit.

“What we have here is a situation wherein uncaring and unconscientious hog raisers would rather recover their losses without any regard for public health and safety of other people. That is the moral question at the heart of this ASF spread,” Herrera said.

The House deputy majority leader also noted that the “containment measures of the DA are apparently not working.”

“Trust in the inspection system of the National Meat Inspection Service is now under strain. Stricter food security steps must be taken,” she said. – With Louise Maureen Simeon, Evelyn Macairan