ILOILO City – The Senate will start hearings on the proposed 2019 national budget next month. Sen. Cynthia Villar promised to make sure the budget for this city’s slaughterhouse’s rehabilitation is included in the General Appropriations Act, said Mayor Jose Espinosa III.
Upgrading the slaughterhouse located in Barangay Tacas, Jaro district may cost “more or less P78 million to P100 million,” according to Espinosa.
The mayor went to Manila recently and personally sought the help of Villar, chairperson of the Senate agriculture and food committee.
The senator vowed to help the city government improve its abattoir, said Espinosa.
A technical working group led by Local Economic Enterprise Office (LEEO) head Ariel Castañeda already submitted to the mayor’s office its recommendations and a master plan on the slaughterhouse.
The National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) helped the technical working group.
The LEEO oversees the operation of the slaughterhouse and the city’s public markets.
Department of Agriculture assistant secretary for Visayas Hansel Didulo recently said upgrading the slaughterhouse would have a considerable impact to the local economy.
“The moment the NMIS and the Bureau of Animal Industry Quarantine Service strictly impose their rules, you cannot transport meat from the slaughterhouse,” said Didulo.
“This will have a big impact because tons of meat from here are being shipped to Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, and even to Boracay before the island was closed,” the Agriculture official said./PN
