Questioning the BAI’s decision and demanding a ban on chicken meat importation!
June 10, 2020A Statement from Citizen-Watch Philippines:
Questioning the BAI’s decision and demanding a ban on chicken meat importation!
CitizenWatch Philippines stands for “the effective and efficient delivery of public services” and the “protection of jobs and income security.” In this light, WE express in the strongest term possible our disagreement with BAI’s policy to allow the importation of chicken meet by limiting local production.
WE also question the Department of Agriculture (DA) as to who are their real constituents: the Filipino poultry industry and its workers OR these importers and their interests?
WE support the open letter sent by the United Broilers Raisers Association (Ubra) and the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) to the Honorable Sec. Dar of the DA, which opposes chicken meat importation.
Cognizant of Sec. Dar’s response that “there was a miscommunication somewhere,” we are further asking for a clarification and explanation why the attached Bureau of the DA has decided to do so.
As rational thinking dictates upon us, we should examine the logic behind such move. In the first place, we do not need to import chicken meat due to the abundant supply of live and frozen chicken meat locally. Second, what we need to prioritize is the stimulation of demand and production to drive consumption and in turn, boost the local chicken production of a struggling sector and not stifle it. Third, the debilitating impact of the lockdown measures has put poultry workers and raisers into a prolonged misery and it is the government’s duty to provide them with jobs and income.
Again, CitizenWatch Philippines demands that the importation of chicken meat be banned for the sake of the whole Philippine poultry sector and the livelihood of millions of Filipino workers and raisers. This goes the same with the whole meat ecosystem in the country.
In this pandemic, WE can only heal as one and together through inclusive government policies. Allowing the entry of imported chicken is a preference against the domestic poultry sector and it could surely “kill” the whole ecosystem of chicken production.