The hellaballoo (my coinage) about pork in the Philippines especially in Metro Manila, looks like plain & simple conflict of interests – the national government versus the private sector. But No: It’s the Survival of the Fittest!
In the upper image, the Department of Agriculture (DA) represented by Secretary of Agriculture William Dar (2ndfrom left), and the private sector represented by Rosendo So (2nd from right); Manila Mayor Isko Moreno happens to be in the middle of the two gentlemen, but never mind his sympathies. They are here to prove to the public that the eating of pork is safe despite the nationwide scare of many pigs actually dying because of the Asian Swine Fever (ASF) – in one report, 20K pigs were culled (killed) to prevent the spread of ASF[1] (30 September 2019, Lilybeth Ison, PNA.gov.ph, source of lechon image above).
Knowing of their resistance to diseases, I now point out the forgotten alternative: raising of native pigs of the Philippines.
The Philippine swine is the fittest. Black is Beautiful!
I know. The lower image is from the book titled Philippine Native Animals and subtitled Source Of Pride & Wealth Worth Conserving & Utilizing (200 pages), authored by Rene C Santiago, Angel L Lambio & Karen C Dimaranan, and published by the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Center of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the Center’s offices being located in Tiaong, Quezon. I was Book Editor, Layout Artist and Producer, coming up with the pdf file for digital printing – the book came off the press March 2016.
Those 4 black pigs are BAI Tiaong-Kalinga, a product of BAI breeding out of the Tiaong (Quezon) and Kalinga (Apayao) breeds. Among other things, the objectives of the BAI are to come up with a breed with consistent performance and still easy to raise in the backyards.
From the book I edited and mentioned above, the native pig’s meat is the best raw material for ethnic delicacies such as lechon, etag, cochinillo.
For whatever it is worth, as a graduate of UP Los Baños and a crusader via communication for development:
I am now personally recommending the massive production of native pigs, with the DA providing the inputs to the willing wives of farmers all over the Philippines.
Already, the educational branch of the DA, Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) has been pursuing production of native meats; see for instance, "BILIB Basta NATIVE" Profitable Guide To Basic Native Pig Production[2]” (10 February 2019, Maridelle G Jaurigue, ATI.da.gov.ph). ATI knows something we don’t!
In growing native swine across the Philippines – instead of the foreign kinds – what will we achieve? All the time we will produce pork:
Quantity – all that Filipinos need and tourists love.
Quality – nourishing, delicious, disease-free pig meats!
Remember: The native pig can only be grown with native foods, so you have automatically organic meat. And every other household can now can raise the meat they need.
Hereon, let the Philippines be known for her huge populations of Filipino swines – the delightful kinds!@517
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