BACOLOD City – With several weeks leading to holiday season, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson renewed his call to Negrenses to patronize locally-produced pork products.
Lacson bared last week his plan to extend until next year the ban on live hogs and pork products from Luzon and other countries affected by the African swine fever (ASF), a highly contagious disease that is deadly to pigs but harmless to humans.
“ASF is already spreading in Luzon and it is no longer limited to the three [initial] provinces identified before,” he stressed. “Support our local industry and buy local pork products.”
Lacson, who chairs the province’s ASF task force, will hold a public hearing today on the proposed ordinance seeking for an extension of the pork ban.
The decision to extend the ban, according to Lacson, came after some products of Pampanga-based Mekeni Foods Corporation tested positive of ASF.
The governor earlier issued Executive Order 19-40, series of 2019, which for 90 days bars the entry of pork products from ASF-affected areas.
Negros Occidental ranks first in terms of backyard swine production in the country, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)./PN
