Know the Law

A RESTAURANT owner has been selling food waste and leftovers as swill feed to backyard hog raisers since he opened his business in Cagayan de Oro City.

This is no longer allowed under Section 4.2 of Ordinance No. 14032-2021, otherwise known as the African Swine Fever Prevention Ordinance of Cagayan de Oro City, which was approved on February 22 by the City Council headed by Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin V. Uy.

The prohibition on the selling of food wastes or “pasaw” to hog raisers is one of the stringent measures adopted by the city government of Cagayan de Oro to avoid contamination from ASF, which has already affected a number of barangays in the city.

Feeding food scraps to pigs is one of the many factors considered to have caused the spread of ASF.

Under the newly-approved law, restaurants, hotels, and other related establishments are mandated to properly dispose food waste in accordance with the guidelines set by the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (CLENRO) or applicable existing laws.

ENTRY BAN

The ordinance prohibits the entry into the city for whatever purpose of hogs and all pork products coming from Luzon and other identified ASF-affected areas in the country and abroad.

It prohibits the carrying, transport, shipment, distribution, storing, trading, marketing and sale of live hogs, pork meat, frozen boar semen, canned goods from pork, and processed pork products coming from affected areas as declared by the Department of Agriculture and the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE).

The entry of live hogs and pork products with incomplete or tampered documents regardless of the point of origin is also deemed illegal in the city.

A penalty of P5,000 or imprisonment of not less than six months but not exceeding one year, or both at the discretion of the court, and the revocation of business permit, as the case may be, await violators of the ordinance

Photo Source: The Philippine Examiner