Bohol imposes absolute ban on entry of hogs, pork products from Leyte provinces

FUTURE GRANDMASTERS — These girls leaf through pamphlets explaining the rules of chess after receiving chess sets from Carigara, Leyte Vice Mayor Eduardo Ong Jr. In distributing 1,300 chess sets to children in 49 barangays of Cariaga, Ong said he was encouraging the youth to stay at home and play chess, and refrain from engaging in contact sports, which is still not allowed under the strict community quarantine.

- MINERVA BC NEWMAN

BOHOL — The province of Bohol has imposed an absolute ban on the entry of live pigs, pork, and processed products from nearby Leyte and Southern Leyte due to the reported outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in the area.

Executive Order (EO) No. 2, which was signed last January 15 by Governor Arthur Yap, expanded the prohibitions on the entry to Bohol of live hogs, frozen pork meat and pork-related products and by-products, processed pork meat, and frozen boar semen from Luzon and Mindanao.

According to Rey Anthony Chiu, the provincial head of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA)-Bohol, earlier EOs excluded live hogs and pork or pork by-products that have National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS) certification or veterinary health certificate from the Bureau of Animal Industry Quarantine Services (BAI-QS).