Duterte to visit Pampanga on Monday
President assures support to poultry industry stakeholders during a forum and dialogue which I conducted on Monday through the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries,” Piñol said.
This is expected to boost the confidence of consumers on the safety of poultry products in the country and is hoped to bring consumer prices to normal.
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to visit Pampanga on Monday and join stakeholders of the poultry industry here “in assuring consumers that the country’s poultry products are safe to eat.”
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Duterte will lead a “boodle fight”meal consisting of “balut,” chicken BBQ and fried ducks from Pampanga.
“The idea to involve the President in restoring consumers’ confidence that Philippine poultry products are safe to eat was proposed by industry
Prices of poultry and chicken products had gone down since the outbreak was reported more than 11 days ago.
Provincial government officials, led by Governor Lilia Pineda, are expected to attend the event.
“Checks representing payments to farmers whose chicken, ducks and quails were culled as part of the quarantine efforts will also be released on Monday,” Pinol said.
Pinol added that the Agriculture Department has already “downloaded P51-M to the Regional Office III and San Luis town while another P20-M sans collateral and interest loans is also being readied.”
“Also to be recognised on Monday are the men and women who worked day and night to contain the Bird Flu outbreak in Central Luzon, including local government employees, Office of Civil Defense Personnel, Department of Health officers, Bureau of Animal Industry and Department of Agriculture officials and employees and the hundreds of army soldiers and policemen who joined the culling operations and the manning of the quarantine stations,” Pinol said.
The DA claims that it has contained the spread of the virus through effective and strict implementation of quarantine measures.
There were culling operations in Jaen and San Isidro, Nueva Ecija the other day while the disinfection operations are on-going in San Luis, Pinol added.