By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
(Note: The original of this article published last week here was alrready emailed out of town for the processing of the plates for printing, only for us to find out the next morming that an updated version was emailed later that same evening
by the author. So here’s the updated version.)
Secretary Manny Piñol of the Department of Agriculture have already declared that bird flu is already fully contained, more than 3 weeks after it was observed. The only areas of concern now, according to him, is within the outbreak municipality of San Luis, Pampanga and in the towns of Jaen and San Isidro in Nueva Ecija. It was really a cause of concern but bird flu should not have scared the wits out of us. This scare is no different from previous ones like red tide in tahong, when unfounded fears resulted in greatly reduced incomes of affected farmers.
The misplaced fear caused unnecessary dislocation of economy in some communities, not necessarily the ones directly affected by the flu, red tide and the like. In the case of the bird flu, it was estimated that the losses amounted to about PhP179.0 M daily or a total of more than PhP2B pesos up to this day. Definitely, the hardest hit were the poultry raisers themselves, especially those from the whole Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac provinces. The few poultry farms in the Cordillera were also said to have their income nosedived during the period of scare.
I can just imagine that entrepreneurs with poultry-related businesses such as fresh chicken sellers, the egg dealers, the restaurants specializing on chicken-based menus, the fried chicken industry, etc. similarly experienced a decline in their incomes. Clearly, the longer the scare stays, the greater is the economic dislocation in many communities, including those far from the outbreak areas. It calls for government agencies charged to safeguard our poultry industry to be ever vigilant and very quick to respond to contain the disease and to allay the unfounded fears of the people.
Us, citizens, should also be not unduly scared. Understanding of the situation, keeping calm and cooperation by all is of utmost importance. Otherwise, the repercussion could be big and may go haywire.
The occurrences of diseases like bird flu, in a country is immediately known in other nations, thanks to the internet and social media
I know of people, including my own relatives abroad, who are advising their kins and friends in Baguio to stop eating poultry products for the moment, regardless of where they are sourced out. If the health of family members is at stake, the advice is understandable. But of course such advice is unsound since poultry product supplies in the Baguio-Benguet area normally come from the adjacent provinces such as Pangasinan, where there was no bird flu.
The bird flu scare had resulted in the banning of our exports of birds and bird products to Japan, South Korea and Singapore although the ban imposed by these countries are on appeal. It also resulted in temporary banning of poultry products from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao by the DA but this had already been lifted. This is an indication that the flu virus is already contained. No spread to other areas is expected.
I can understand perfectly well why prominent people or high government officials need to be seen in media eating poultry products to show that there is no risk in eating them. To show that chicken raised in Pampanga outside of San Luis is safe, the mayor of Candaba town, distributed free chicken and people were just too happy to receive them. They firmly believe, because of the assurance given by DOH and DA, that the detected H5N5 strain in the affected fowls had no effect on human health
It would have been best to have concerned agencies to have immediately instituted measures to contain the flu and prevent its spread. It was also important to have the flu not blown out of proportion in the media. An extreme measure could have been the imposition of temporary news blackout about it while furiously doing everything within their power to find solutions.
After all had been said and done, I think the DA, through the active leadership of Sec. Manny Piñol had done a very good job in addressing the bird flu problem.
It is said that the source of the bird flu is not clear. There are a lot of speculations. One of them is the possibility that the migratory birds from China could have carried the virus. China was one of the countries that experienced outbreak of the virus earlier. And yes, migratory birds regularly visiting us come from China.
Incidentally, China is known to be a primary source of drugs that are flooding the country. And according to reports from reliable sources, Chinese planes are now patrolling parts of Philippine territory in the West Philippine Sea, that they are even regularly intercepting our planes going to the PAG-ASA island. Chinese ships are also similarly patrolling the same sea and even our territories on the other side, in the Pacific ocean. If we will not condemn such acts in unison as a nation, we will wake up one day that somebody knocking at our doors masquerading as security officers are “singkit”.
Right now, because Chinese planes and ships are moving unhampered in our skies and seas, who can prevent the smuggling of drugs into our shores? With the present stance of Pres. Duterte vis-à-vis China, it seems that the drug problem will drag on for years and years to come. The drug war will rage on. Meantime, innocents like the kid, Kian de los Santos, could continue to be part of collateral damage.**
