The President led the distribution of indemnity checks as grants and financial assistance from the Department of Agriculture (DA) to the poultry owners and workers in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija.
Leading the beneficiaries was Mayor Venancio “Asiong” Macapagal of San Luis, Pampanga, which was the site of the quarantined area, who personally received a check worth P20,723,797 from President Duterte for poultry owners and workers in his municipality.
Ruperto Vicmud of Mexico, Pampanga which is inside the 7-kilometer controlled zone was handed a P2,553,640 check by Duterte.
Among the recipients in Nueva Ecija included Manuel Ortiz from the town of San Isidro who was granted P5,516,000.
Also granted indemnity checks were Mary Grace Castro who was given a check worth P209,250 and Magdalena Nabung who was handed a check worth P149,000. Both are from Jaen, Nueva Ecija.
The President also gave several beneficiaries from the loan package of the Survival and Recovery Loaning Program worth P25,000 each.
Some of the beneficiaries were poultry owners Gertrudes Romero, Eryl Santos, Augusto Sambile, Jesus Sambile and Robert Tiangco.
Farm workers who received the same loan package were Frederic Romero, Mars Flores, Albert Sambile and JP Dante.
“The grants and loans were part of the efforts of the national government to mitigate the problem caused by the outbreak and to assist the affected poultry owners and workers,” Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said.
He stressed that early reporting of cases is crucial in order to prevent any outbreak.
In his status update, Piñol said the problem started as early as April in a quail farm with about 70 ducks and where all of the 50,000 quails and 50 ducks died in just a matter of days.
However, it was only on August 3 when the Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory received the first reports of the unusual number of deaths of quails and leghorn chickens in several farms in San Luis, Pampanga.
Of the 86,800 layers, 21,100 died. All 15,000 quails died and 385 out of 9,180 ducks were reported dead.
“On August 10, I received the report but announced it a day later because I asked the biosecurity experts to place quarantine stations first to prevent smuggling of cocks used in cockfighting,” he explained.
However, the secretary assured that since then, the government has acted immediately to prevent the outbreak from further spreading to nearby towns.
Immediately after the announcement, Piñol said the Avian Influenza Task Force was activated and poultry from the 1-kilometeradius zone were de-populated.
“A 7-kilomketer controlled zone or observation area was also established and a Luzon-wide ban on shipment of poultry products to other parts of the country was also ordered immediately upon the recommendation of the biosecurity experts,” he reported.
Aside from de-populating the affected poultry, the DA has also conducted consultations with local officials and affected stakeholders and established close coordination with them in the culling operations.
“People, due to lack of information, shied away from chicken and eggs resulting in the drastic low demand for chicken and eggs and a corresponding drop in the farm gate prices from P90 to P15 per kilo.
Millions of eggs were also spoiled and many people lost their jobs,” he reported.
Because of this, the government geared towards continuous information dissemination and to educate the public that poultry products from the affected areas are now safe for consumption.
However, despite the losses in the poultry industry, the DA still considers the operations against the spread of avian influenza virus to be a success.
Piñol said as part of their efforts, they have released a total of P52 million worth of aid to affected farmers.
The DA secretary also announced that he asked an additional P100 million from the agency’s quick response fund to augment the livelihood of the affected farmers which was already approved by President Duterte.
Meanwhile, affected poultry raisers are not allowed to raise chickens for the next three months. The DA pledged to help them with other agricultural activities.
“Today we witness a beautiful story. In adversity, a united people were successful and now we’re looking for a better future for the people of Pampanga and the province of Pampanga,” he said.
After the short program, Duterte led the eating of chickens, balut and fried itik in a boodle fight with Piñol, Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda and Rep. Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo (2nd district, Pamp.) as well as other government officials to prove that poultry from Pampanga and Nueva Ecija are safe to eat.
