Cebu City penalizes persons who smuggle pork and pork-related products coming from areas affected by ASF. #ASF #porksmuggling

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia on Sunday warned pork dealers and sellers that she will open the doors of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) for those who insist on selling their products from Luzon and countries with African Swine Fever outbreaks.

“Just for this hard-headed establishments, we don’t naman accept new detainees but I will welcome them as I will make them an example,” Garcia told media in an ambush interview after presiding over the Provincial Anti-ASF Task Force.

Garcia made the threat amid reports that several establishments caught by the task force selling pork sourced from places with ASF outbreaks resumed selling such pork products.

At the meeting, Cebu Provincial Veterinary Office Chief Dr. Rose Vincoy said their confiscation on pork and pork-related products have steadily dropped in the last three months since the activation of the task force in August.

On Friday, Vincoy said he suspects that pork from ASF-infected places are being smuggled into Cebu at the expense of the Cebuanos.

“Let’s hope that these businessmen are not only thinking of profits but they have to think of being a Cebuano as we have to help each other,” Vincoy said in a year-end meeting of the task force held on Friday.

Last September 16, the Cebu Provincial Board passed an ordinance providing for the imposition of a minimum of P5,000 penalty and jail term of up to six years for persons who smuggle to Cebu pork and pork-related products coming from areas affected by ASF.

Vincoy said her office has again coordinated with the Cebu Provincial Police Office in spite of the holidays to conduct rounds of monitoring and surveillance.

Meanwhile, Garcia said she will issue a new Executive Order that will ban pork and pork-related products coming from Eastern Visayas.

This after Eastern Visayas, which covers Leyte and Samar, lifted their ban against pork and pork-related products that are coming from Luzon following the order from the Department of Interior and Local Government to local government units last October.

Garcia said Cebu is highly vulnerable considering the products from Luzon pass through these provinces before entering Cebu, particularly the northern sea ports.

“We will have to implement stricter measures because this does not involve only pork products but also other food products as this are already co-mingled products,” she added.

The Philippine Coast Guard promised to activate its pork-sniffing dogs by deploying them at certain specific times to help identify pork contrabands and shipments.

Garcia requested the Philippine Ports Authority for additional personnel that will specifically monitor shipments from Samar and Leyte.

Executive Order 23 issued on 23 November by Garcia bans the entry of all meat or food products that have co-mingled or those which have been stored in the same cold storage facility with pork,pork-related products and other by-products coming from Luzon.