Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa) chairman Secretary Manny Piñol on Tuesday urged Agriculture Secretary William Dar to stop the blame game, adding that it would not solve the outbreak of the African Swine Fever (ASF) in Luzon.
“Enough of the blame game. Let us work together in addressing the problems,” said Piñol in his latest Facebook post.
Piñol, the erstwhile agriculture chief, was reacting to reports that the ASF was already present as early as May and that he kept the information from the stakeholders, resulting in the spread of the swine disease.
“The Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) had not recorded or reported to the OIE or World Animal Health Organization any incidence of ASF outbreak in May, June or July. It was only in August when the first case was reported in Rizal and specimens were sent to the OIE for validation,” Piñol stressed.
Piñol said if the ASF was already present in May, “by August when Sec. Dar took over the DA, it should have already wiped out the hog population among backyard farmers in Central Luzon.”
The MinDa chief cited the experts’ explanation that the incubation period of the ASF virus is between 4 and 19 days and it could decimate a hog population in 48 to 72 hours.
He said the DA-BAI quarantine teams worked round-the-clock along with K9 units at the airports and made several interceptions of pork products suspected to be contaminated with ASF.
“The reported outbreak of ASF was in areas near the dumpsites where apparently food wastes are being gathered and sold to backyard hog raisers for swill feeding, a practice which was specifically identified as one of the “Don’ts” in the BABES campaign of DA-BAI,” Piñol wrote.
Piñol reiterated his pledge during the turnover ceremony to help and support Dar.
“I am still making that same commitment today even if he has offended me with his irresponsible accusations and childish actuations of looking for people to blame in the face of crisis,” he said. “I hope you will take this piece of advice knowing that you are the Agriculture Expert and I am just a Farm Boy.”