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Chicken meat will not come from Luzon, says the Agriculture Secretary
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Instead, the products will be sourced from Mindanao, and are Halal-compliant
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Department of Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol (File photo/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol addressed concerns over the government’s plan to distribute chicken meat to evacuees in Marawi. The products were said to be coming from Luzon, where a bird flu case has been reported.
“The chicken which will be brought to Marawi do not even come from the farms in Luzon,” Piñol said in his Facebook page Tuesday, August 29.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary was reported to have proposed to distribute chicken from bird-flu affected Luzon. This comes after an outbreak of the said disease in Pampanga.
Halal compliant
The products are not only safe from bird-flue, they are also Halal-compliant, the secretary said.
“I am culture-sensitive and I am fully aware of the Halal requirements,” he wrote in the same post.
A dwindling demand for chicken meat has been felt since the start of the bird flu scare, he said, thus creating a surplus of the said product.
“These are supplies kept in the cold storage which were supposed to be released to the market on a weekly basis,” he said.
The supply coming from Luzon, he explained, will instead be directed to Ana’s Breeder Farm in Davao.
President Duterte on Monday, August 28, made a public message to dispel fears that consuming chicken is not safe. In Pampanga, he led a boodle fight of chicken dishes along with Piñol, Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and other government officials.
“I don’t know how evacuees would react when the(y) see the soldiers and government men feasting on crispy fried chicken while they only have sardines, noodles and dried fish,” said Piñol. (davaotoday.com)
