ANTIQUE – The Provincial Veterinary (ProVet) Quarantine personnel of this province are authorized to inspect the luggage of passengers of all incoming vehicles as part of the province’s strengthened African swine fever (ASF) control measures.
People are also being urged to yield their pork and pork by-products at ASF border control checkpoints to avoid penalties, said ProVet Public Health Division chief, Dr. Marco Rafael Ardamil, on Tuesday afternoon.
Confiscations and courier vans being ordered to return to their points of origin in Iloilo province are being strengthened at border control checkpoints in Barangay Fabrica in Hamtic and in Barangay San Francisco in Anini-y.
“We have confiscated pork lechon, pork adobo, pork chicharon, and spam from commuters at the border control checkpoints in San Francisco, Anini-y,” Ardamil said.
They have yet to determine the total confiscation and the corresponding value.
“So far, the ProVet personnel have not reported any resistance or threatening words from the commuters or couriers,” he said.
ProVet personnel also distribute flyers for information dissemination.
Executive Order (EO) 229 issued by Gov. Rhodora Cadiao on Oct. 18 strengthens border control points following the first confirmed cases of ASF in Oton, Iloilo.
Antique vice governor Edgar Denosta, chairperson of the Antique Provincial Board Committee on Agriculture, said violators, including those resisting the confiscations, would be fined not less than P1,000 but not exceeding P5,000 or imprisoned for not less than six months to one year maximum, or both at the court’s discretion. (PNA)/PN
