Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte has called anew on the government to subsidize the planned mass vaccination against the
African Swine Fever (ASF) for the benefit of backyard hog raisers, after President Marcos himself vouched last week for a Vietnamese
vaccine, which, he said, was proven in field trials to produce sufficient antibodies against this deadly virus and safe for use for
our domestic pigs.
Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party, at the same time reiterated his appeal for the Bureau of Animal Industry to mount a
nationwide inoculation drive for domestic pigs as soon as the FDA gives its go-signal for commercial use to the Avac Live vaccine and
for the government to subsidize the cost of the shots for small-scale or backyard raisers who have endured the brunt of the ASF outbreaks
that have across the country since 2019.
He said, “The government needs to declare a state of calamity in ASF-hit areas so it can look for and immediately release emergency
funds to bankroll a mass vaccination drive this year, and then set aside additional funds in next year’s General Appropriations Act (GAA)
so the BAI can sustain this inoculation project in 2024.”
The former governor of CamSur, which is one of the country’s ASF-hit provinces, reiterated his proposals after Mr. Marcos announced at a
July 5 livestock event the completion of the initial phase of safety and efficacy trials for the anti-ASF vaccine, which, the President
said, was found by BAI to produce sufficient antibodies against the virus and safe for use for local hogs.
Mr. Marcos said at the Livestock Philippines Expo 2023 that this development would enable the FDA to issue a certificate of product
registration (CPR) for the vaccine, giving us great hope as we have been waiting for this for a very long time … The vaccine is 80 percent
effective.”
Villafuerte earlier proposed a comprehensive solution to finally end the three-year ASF outbreaks—it first broke out in the Philippines a
year after it resurfaced in the world in China in 2018—and reverse the declining hog supply, which, unless unchecked, could push up anew the
market cost of pork products and aggravate persistently elevated inflation that has been hobbling Philippine economic growth.
As part of his multi-pronged proposal, Villafuerte also urged the Food and Drug Association (FDA) to speed up its registration process for
the Avac Live vaccine, so it can be available for local commercial use; and the BAI to prepare this early by immediately requesting funds
for the vaccine purchase and eventually overseeing the immunization drive in hog-raising areas nationwide.
An agency attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA), “the BAI needs to subsidize 100 percent, or at least half or 50%, the cost of
the vaccine for small-scale or backyard hog raisers hit hard by the lingering killer animal disease,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte said the government needs to pay fully or half the cost of the vaccines, for small-scale or backyard raisers, “considering that
many of them are believed to still be reeling from the twin impacts of ASF, which resurfaced locally in 2019, and the three-year Covid-19
pandemic, and are in no position to pay for this medical expense.”
He said his proposed initiatives “will best equip our government to put an end to this period of low hog supply, bigger imports, and high
pork prices resulting from the resurgence of ASF, which, in turn, has been one of the factors behind the stubbornly elevated inflation that
threatens to hold back the country’s high-growth momentum.”