Avian flu crisis over
    Fowls safe to eat

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    (RECOGNITION. Pres. Duterte hands to Gov. Lilia G. Pineda Certificate of Recognition for the provincial government’s action in addressing the avian flu outbreak. Looking on is Agriculture Sec. Manny Piñol. Photo by Jun Jaso/Pampanga PIO)

    CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Coughing between his sentences during his short speech here, Pres. Duterte said Monday the avian flu crisis is over and that chickens and other fowls are safe to eat.

    Speaking before local officials from Pampanga and Nueva Ecija where the bird fl u plague has already been contained, the President said “I assure the public that poultry products from Pampanga and Nueva Ecija are now safe.”

    The President apologized for his coughing, as he joked that someone outside the hall must be cursing him.

    “But I don’t think I have enemies here in Pampanga. I won in the elections here,” he said.

    The gathering was organized at the Heroes Hall here by the Department of Agriculture (DA) amid reports that consumers still refrain from buying fresh chicken from the markets.

    The President, former president Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo, Agriculture Sec. Manny Piñol, Health Sec. Paulyn Ubial, Gov. Lilia G. Pineda and local officials from Pampanga and Nueva Ecija later shared a boodle fight lunch with chicken dishes and balut as viands.

    Piñol reported in his speech that the price of fresh chicken has dropped to as low as P50 per kilo in some markets, from its average of P130 per kilo before the avian flu scare.

    The President said he would ask the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCor) if it could provide more funds for those affected by the avian flu in the two provinces.

    Piñol reported a total of 592,127 fowls, mostly chicken and quails, were culled arising from avian flu in the towns of San Luis in this province and Jaen and San Isidro in Nueva Ecija.

    Duterte turned over to the owners of the affected poultry in the two provinces almost P21 million as compensation for their culled fowls, based on computations of P8 per chicken and P10 per quail.

    The President, some Cabinet members and officials from the two provinces converged at the Heroes Hall here yesterday to lead a boodle fight consisting of all-chicken dishes in a move to lift fear of chickens among consumers.

    In his speech, Piñol reported that “a total of 421,132 birds were depopulated in affected farms of San Luis, Pampanga.”

    He said the number included those culled in the one-kilometer radius zone totaling 314,736 birds “while voluntary culling in the seven-kilometer controlled zone totaled 106,396 birds.”

    “More than 400 police and army personnel, the Northern Luzon Command, the Bureau of Fore Protection and the Office of Civil Defense helped in the culling operations in the two areas,” he noted. They received from the President certificates of appreciation.

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