Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro issued Executive Order 55, allowing live hogs into the province strictly for immediate slaughter at accredited facilities for lechon preparation amid African swine fever threats.
Shipments require full documentation—including veterinary certificates, negative ASF test results, and NMIS-accredited slaughterhouse designations—or face confiscation, forfeiture, or return to origin by enforcing agencies.
The order follows the containment of an ASF outbreak in Ginatilan traced to meat from Negros Oriental, whose native hogs local lechoneros prefer.
CEBU Province will allow live hogs to enter only if they are going straight to accredited slaughterhouses for lechon preparation, under Executive Order (EO) 55 issued by Gov. Pamela Baricuatro on Monday, Oct. 26.
The order tightens regulation of live hogs, pork and pork products amid the continued threat of African swine fever (ASF).
Section 2 says only live hogs meant to be brought directly to accredited slaughterhouses in Cebu for lechon will be allowed in. They must not be kept for breeding or resale and must go straight to slaughter, as declared in their documents. Fresh, frozen and processed pork remain subject to veterinary, quarantine and meat inspection requirements.
Entry requirements
Shipments must carry complete documents, including a valid shipping permit from the Bureau of Animal Industry’s quarantine service, a veterinary health certificate concurred with by the origin provincial veterinarian, and negative ASF RT-PCR lab results.
Pork shipments need a meat inspection certificate from an establishment accredited by the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS).
Vehicles need a disinfection certificate, and live hog shipments need a livestock handlers’ permit from the Department of Agriculture. Processed pork must meet Food and Drug Administration requirements, including a License to Operate and Certificate of Product Registration.
Live hog shipments must name an NMIS-accredited Cebu slaughterhouse for immediate slaughter. All shipments must enter through official ports with veterinary quarantine officers, who will verify documents and inspect animals or products.
Shipments with incomplete papers, no declared slaughterhouse, or those bypass designated seaports, may be confiscated and forfeited or returned to origin. The mayor of the local government unit (LGU) where a shipment is intercepted decides its disposition, in coordination with the Regional Veterinary Quarantine Service. The Cebu Port Authority, Coast Guard, police and LGUs must enforce the rules at seaports, airports and land checkpoints.
EO 55 follows ASF detection in two Ginatilan barangays on Sept. 18. Provincial Veterinarian Mary Rose Vincoy said the suspected source was residents of Cagsing who brought home uncooked meat from a feast in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental. Cagsing and Calabawan were quarantined with six checkpoints. On Oct. 20, Vincoy said all 60 blood samples from the town’s 12 initially unaffected barangays tested negative, and the outbreak is considered contained with no secondary infection found.
Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines vice chairman Rolando Tambago earlier said Cebu lechoneros prefer Negros hogs for their smaller size and native breeds. Baricuatro also said Negros Oriental Gov. Manuel Sagarbarria had asked Cebu to consider testing hogs before shipment.
EO 44, issued Aug. 20, extended for 45 days the provincewide ban on live hogs, fresh or frozen pork and processed pork from Negros Island and other ASF-affected areas. It followed EO 39 and expired Oct. 5. The bans aimed to protect Cebu’s P20-billion hog industry. EO 55 does not say EO 44 was lifted or replaced, but revokes or modifies inconsistent issuances. / CDF