Amid the ongoing concerns surrounding African swine fever, Victorias City-based Bahamas Meatshop Farm/Nutriafeeds is seeking intervention by the Department of Agriculture after several closure attempts were made by the Victorias Milling Company (VMC) on a local piggery.
“This is a threat to the swine industry that will surely affect pork supply in Negros, especially [after] Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson recently declared a 90-day ban against the entry of pork supplies from Luzon amidst the threat of [African swine fever],” said farm consultant Ruperto Bacucang.
The Bahamas Meatshop Farm is located within VMC property, which has been leased since 2008. While the two firms entered into a compromise agreement last March after the milling company wanted the piggery off their property as the lease was set to expire on September 12, Bahamas Meatshop Farm has a pending motion to set aside the compromise as they found it to be “impossible” for a piggery to relocate within six months’ time.
“We need at least three years to relocate because we have to find a suitable land, secure permit licenses, earth movers, construct facilities, wastewater treatment facility, and set up power facilities for the piggery,” Bacucang pointed out.
Last Sunday, VMC sent a backhoe and dug a six-foot hole at the entrance of the piggery in order to bar the entry and exit of vehicles and other supplies.
“People will be deprived of their livelihood and the pigs will die if VMC continues to bar the entry of feeds to the piggery,” Bacucang added, calling the actions a violation of RA 8485, or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998./DGB, WDJ