"The Philippines should reduce its dependence on imported hog products as the country is capable of producing quality hog goods," Senator Cynthia Villar said Sunday. 

Villar believes that local hog producers can parallel the quality of imported products.  

“The love for pork of our kababayans will remain so we need to find a good source of juicy, tender pork with the ideal meat-to-fat ratio at an affordable price,” Villar said in her speech at the National Federation of Hog Farmers National Pig Day Celebration in Quezon City on Sunday. 

During the event, the Federation of Hog Farmers set a Guinness Record for the most number of pork dishes on display and to be served.

Villar, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, noted that Filipinos can consume at least 15 kilograms of pork meat, 11.6 kgs of chicken meat, and 3 kg of beef meat per year.

As of September 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority said the Calabarzon, Central Luzon, Northern Mindanao, Central Visayas, Davao Region, and Zamboanga Peninsula are the top five provinces in the country with the highest volume of hog production at live weight. 

Villar stressed that about 67.5 percent of the country’s swine population came from small-hold farms, while the remaining 29.2 percent and 3.3 percent were from commercial and semi-commercial farms, respectively.

But she lamented the threats brought about by the African Swine Flu to the country’s hog industry. 

In fact, the Philippine hog sector logged P200 billion in losses since the first domestic ASF cases were recorded in 2019. 

Citing the Bureau of Animal Industry’s data in November last year, Villar said 11 provinces out of the 82 remain ASF-free. Most of them were in Mindanao, including Batanes, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Bohol, Siquijor, Biliran, Bukidnon, Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The senator also lamented that while there’s no ASF vaccine has been approved in the country yet, “we can only rely on our good animal husbandry practices in preventing disease and disease-causing agents to spread for our hog farmers to earn, attain their maximum farm yield, protect the consumer food supply by making available clean and safe hogs for slaughter.”

Villar likewise called for the stoppage of agricultural smuggling to protect the country’s local hog producers. 

The senator also urged her fellow lawmakers from both Houses to “finish the bicameral conference on Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Bill.”

“[The] Congress has to pass the Livestock Poultry and Dairy Bill and the Corn Bill soonest to finance the strengthening of the industries from tariffs collected on imported animal products and feeds,” Villar added.