Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said Tuesday, March 21, 2023, that he will issue an executive order on Wednesday, following the detection of the highly contagious pig disease in the city.
The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) announced last Monday the presence of ASF in Cebu City after blood samples collected from pigs kept in a backyard farm in an urban barangay in the city tested positive for the disease.
Rama has ordered the creation of the ASF Incident Command to focus on the monitoring of the status of ASF cases in the city.
Rama also declined to comment yet on whether he is in favor of culling possible affected pigs.
Cebu City Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries head Jessica Maribojoc earlier said the pigs in the city that tested positive came from Carcar City, the first place in Cebu where the Department of Agriculture detected the presence of ASF this month.
Maribojoc assured the public that pigs with ASF are not harmful to humans, but they should not be eaten or sold.
Neighbor
Cebu City’s neighbor to the north, Mandaue City, now eyes putting at least 12 areas across Cebu, including Cebu City, under strict border control as part of its strengthened measures to protect Mandaue against ASF infection.
Lt. Col. Franco Rudolf Oriol, Mandaue City Police Office deputy chief of operations and spokesperson, told the media Tuesday, they are waiting for the go signal from the Mandaue City government for police deployment.
Oriol said the areas to be strictly monitored are the Upper and Lower Tawason, Panagdait, Innodata in Subangdaku, Banilad, Cabancalan, Lapu-Lapu City, Cansaga, Jagobiao, the First and Second Mandaue-Mactan Bridges, and Talamban.
Oriol said four policemen would be deployed on each border, with city health personnel and some force multipliers, mostly village guards (barangay tanods). They will man the border 24 hours.
Dr. Alvin Leal, the officer-in-charge regional technical director for the National Meat Inspection Service, said earlier that among the documents hog transporters must present are a veterinary health certificate, certificate of ownership for large animals, and certificate of transportation from their local veterinarian offices.
Last Monday, the BAI declared five more areas in Cebu as affected by ASF. These are the cities of Cebu and Bogo and municipalities of Liloan, Sibonga and Tuburan.