Ako Bicol Rep. Co urges Dar to fire BAI officials

Ako Bicol party-list representative Elizaldy S. Co urged Agriculture Secretary William Dar to fire officials of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) who asked local chicken farmers to give way to chicken importation.

Co said the recent BAI pronouncement to poultry producers is anti-Filipino. 

“It’s like rubbing salt to the wounds of local poultry raisers facing the grim specter of bankruptcy and business closures amidst the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. 

The solon added that unabated importation is flooding the local market with chicken meat from unknown foreign sources. This, he said, also poses severe health hazards.

Co also said BAI officials failed to show evidence of overpricing or even lack of local supply to justify more imports. 

“Even at the start of the Luzonwide lockdown, chicken prices have fallen to precariously low levels of P60 to P70 per kilo which is unsustainable. Thus, allowing more imports at a time of local oversupply is both shady and unpatriotic,” the lawmaker said.

He also asked Dar to review BAI’s decision making and whether its officials are working for Filipino or foreign interests. 

Co echoed the position of the United Broilers Association (UBA) in questioning BAI’s claim that poultry imports were not enough to hurt local producers. 

“I agree with Atty. Bong Inciong that unbridled importation has caused so much damage to the poultry industry in the last 25 years. It’s true that the volume of imports need not be overwhelming to cause damage. We’ve seen how it depressed prices to unsustainable levels,” he said.

The lawmaker stressed that the policy of favoring imports over local production is a grave threat to the country’s food security, apart from causing damage to local producers.