Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez has issued an executive order allowing the entry of pigs, boar semen, pork products, and other pork related food items into Bacolod City.
Benitez said he signed the executive order on Friday, February 23, which is consisted with an updated Department of Agriculture (DA) circular and in order to avert any threat of shortage of basic food necessities.
This will allow the entry of pigs and pork products to Bacolod, even from red zones, Benitez said.
The mayor issued the Bacolod EO after he and Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson signed Joint Executive Order No.1 Series of 2024 on Friday.
It sets aside their joint EO in 2023 establishing the guidelines for the entry of pigs and pork products from areas with reported cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) effective immediately.
The Department of Agriculture had tagged Bacolod City as an ASF red zone and Negros Occidental as a dark green zone.
In view of the different classifications of Negros Occidental and Bacolod City and upon the recommendation of the DA, there is a need to set aside Joint Executive Order No. 1, Series of 2023 in order for the two Local Government Units to issue their respective guidelines on the entry of live pigs, pork, pork products, and other pork related food items from areas with reported cases of ASF, the new joint EO states.
Lacson earlier said pigs and pork products from red zones would not be allowed into Negros Occidental.*