Victorias City that has insured almost 100 percent of its hogs has been African swine fever free this year, Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez said on Wednesday, February 28.
However, they are still waiting for the city to be officially declared ASF-free, he said.
Almost all of Victorias City’s hog raisers are insured with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation and the city’s own crop insurance program, he said.
Victorias City was the first LGU in Negros Occidental last year to announce that it had ASF cases so the raisers could be insured, he said.
The Negros Occidental provincial government distributed P2,000 in assistance to each of the 96 affected hog raisers in Victorias on February 20, Benitez also said.
Benitez said he supports Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson’s continued ban on the entry of pigs and pork from ASF hit areas into the province.
“It cannot not be done immediately because when you allow everything to enter we may get ASF again. We can build and grow again slowly but we also have to find alternatives while there is still a ban,” Benitez said.
Victorias City has distributed chickens, goats and even rabbits to provide hog raisers with alternative livelihoods, he said.*