The Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking into the possibility of imposing penalties on tourists who will bring in pork products from African swine fever (ASF)-affected countries to deter the entry of meat and/or meat products that could transmit the dreaded hog disease.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told the BusinessMirror that he would discuss with his policy officials on how the government could impose such measure in light of the spread of ASF in Asia, which has been recently confirmed to be present in Vietnam’s hog population.
“That’s a good idea,” Piñol said in an interview on Thursday, when he asked if the Philippine government would penalize tourists for smuggling pork products from ASF-affected nation just like what Taiwan is doing right now.
Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (ProPork) President Edwin G. Chen told the BusinessMirror that they support the proposal and even encourage the government to also consider filing cases of economic sabotage against erring tourists.
“Not only [should the government] confiscate [the pork products] but consider penalty and imprisonment [on charges of] of economic sabotage,” Chen said in an interview.
“If they know [the products are] banned [then] why will they [even] try [to] bring [them] in? We have to protect [our] P200-billion [hog] industry,” Chen added.
Chen also urged the government to strengthen its information campaign on ASF, especially to tourists and returning Filipinos from abroad, so that people would be aware on the possible impact of the disease to the local industry.
Tourists that try to bring in or smuggle pork products from abroad to Taiwan are fined with NT$200,000, as a first offense, and would not be allowed to enter the country if they would not pay the penalty. Erring tourists that are caught bringing in meat products two or more times would be fined with NT$1 million, according to online news reports.
Vietnam submitted its ASF-outbreak report to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on February 20, confirming its first-ever incidence of the dreaded swine disease. The report indicated that over 260 hogs are already suspected to be affected by the ASF.
Vietnam is the first Asean member-state to confirm the outbreak of ASF in its territory.
Chen also urged concerned government agencies, such as the Bureau of Customs (BOC), to intensify its measures on inspecting luggage and hand-carry bags of tourists entering the country.
He added that he have received reports that luggage brought by tourists to the country are not allegedly thoroughly inspected by airport authorities.
The control over the inspection of luggage entering airports are not within the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) but with BOC and other airport authorities.
Nonetheless, the BAI said that the government has already issued a memorandum order authorizing an importation ban on pork and pork products from Vietnam as part of its preventive measures. Furthermore, BAI Officer in Charge Director Ronnie D. Domingo said the Philippines does not import any meat products from Vietnam in the first place.
“We have ‘closed’ our gate for these ASF-affected countries. We need to sustain airport interventions,” Domingo told the BusinessMirror.
Pork products brought in by tourists and returning Filipinos from abroad have been flagged by the BAI as one of the most possible means for the ASF virus to enter the country.
The OIE and the United Nations’s Food Agriculture and Organization have pronounced that ASF virus could still thrive even in processed meat products, such as bacon and siomai, among others.