CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – A total of 156,424 rat tails exchanged for P782,120 in cash as of 10 a.m., Nov. 24.
That, according to the tally board dubbed “Mr. Rat Road to P1 Million” of the San Luis, Pampanga Facebook page marked the latest achievement in the local government’s cash-for-rat program.
Last Oct. 20, Mayor Jay Sagum launched the program to fast track the eradication of farm rats, with the stimulus of a P1-million bounty for the rodents, preferably dead. With the exchange rate of P5 to a tail.
A desk dedicated for the purpose was set up by the municipal agriculture office at the town hall’s ground floor, open from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday to Friday, to pay out for the dead rats.
Of the eastern Pampanga town’s total land area of 5,600 hectares, 4,870 hectares of rice and vegetable crops cultivated by some 2,500 farmers have been infested with rats, Sagum said at the time the program was launched.
He cited studies that found a single rat is capable of ravaging 25 kilograms of palay in less than one hour.
“At P5 per tail, the P1 million bounty is equivalent to 200,000 dead rats. Multiply that to the 25 kilos of palay each rat destroys and then at the usual price of P15 per kilo and you will get P75 million cost of destruction,” explained Sagum of the economic dynamics of rat infestation.
Of the P1 million reward money, P217,880 is still unspent – exactly equivalent to 43,376 more rats.
Local residents are now asking if the LGU will continue paying for rat tails once the bounty is expended.
