THE Department of Agriculture will have to ask for additional funding from the government as it tries to address the recent African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in a town in Davao Occidental.
In an interview Saturday, Agriculture secretary William Dar said while the department is not running out of funds, they may still need additional budget considering that some amounts have already been used for disaster management efforts like that in the Taal Volcano eruption.
“We will have to ask additional budget for this purpose,” Dar said.
“Hindi [tayo] kinakapos. ‘Yung budget, nandiyan pero itong taon ay ang daming kalamidad. ‘Di ba, Taal, nangyari na. So merong budget ang gobyerno,” he added.
In a memorandum issued Jan. 31, Don Marcelino, Davao Occidental mayor Michael Maruya said the continuing incidence of ASF in the town has caused “the mortality of more or less 1,000 heads of swine.” (GMA News)
