New abattoir to hike capacity to ship pork products in Manila

By Maricar M. Calubiran

The capability of the city to ship pork products to Metro Manila will increase by as much as 12% should the P16 million abattoir in Barangay Tacas, Jaro becomes operational.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Regional Director Ricardo Oblena said once the slaughterhouse is functional, they can cover the 12% pork needs of Luzon. This will brighten the business prospects of hog raisers and suppliers. The construction of the slaughterhouse is expected to wrap up third quarter of 2005.

At present, the city is only shipping six to eight percent of Luzon's pork needs. Western Visayas specifically Iloilo has surplus supply of pork and fish. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her recent visit to Iloilo City pushed for the business potential of the city by transporting meat and other fishery products to other parts of the country particularly Luzon.

Oblena along with Mayor Jerry Treñas, DA assistant regional director Nachito Baylon and City Veterinarian Tomas Forteza yesterday signed a memorandum of agreement on the construction of the city's first ever double A abattoir. The slaughterhouse will rise on the 2.3 hectares of lot in Barangay Tacas, Jaro.

Oblena added that pork products could be transported easily from Iloilo to Metro Manila if it is already in cut portions rather than sending live hogs. The cut pork portions will be stored in the refrigerated vans and transported using the nautical highways or the roll-on and roll off port.

Currently, only the Lorenzo shipping company transports the live hogs from Iloilo to Manila. They are hoping of tapping the service of other shipping companies once the double A abattoir is serviceable and a refrigerated van is already available to transport the products.

The funding for the slaughterhouse came from the Department of Agriculture. Initially, the funding is only P6 million but President Arroyo gave an additional funding of P10 million. The P16 million will only cover the infrastructure.

Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city government bought the lot for the site and they will also take charge of the fencing and other needs for the construction of the slaughterhouse. The budget for the site's fencing is already included in the supplemental budget.

Out of the 2.3 hectares, one hectare will be used for the waste water treatment plant. This is mandatory under the Clean Water Act. The unused portion of the lot will be used as nursery area of the City Agriculture Office, said Treñas.

Treñas said the equipment which was long been stored at the Molo slaughterhouse house will be installed in Tacas. The National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) is currently evaluating the status of the equipment. The equipment had been stored more than a decade. Some of the parts were already stolen others were full of rusts.

The mayor plans to have the old slaughterhouse auctioned. The proceeds will be spent to augment the expenditures of the new slaughterhouse. However, this will depend on the decision of the city council.