Rules for animal industry law seen out by October
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine state agencies are targeting to complete by October the implementing guidelines for a law designed to boost the Philippine animal industry.
The Animal Industry Development and Competitiveness Act, which took effect in October last year, aims to strengthen the livestock, poultry and dairy industries by providing resources for their development and restructuring key government agencies.
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The law created the Animal Competitiveness Enhancement Fund with an annual budget of P20 billion to bankroll various initiatives, including repopulation and herd build-up, and disease prevention and control. It is funded through tariff collections from livestock, poultry and dairy.
“Everything should be in place by October,” National Dairy Authority (NDA) Administrator Marcus Antonius Andaya said in an interview.
The law was enacted without implementing rules and regulations, although Andaya said the guidelines would provide further details on certain provisions before these can be fully implemented.
“Many provisions will require guidelines on how they will be implemented. We are providing the specifics on how to carry out these provisions,” he told reporters.
These include crafting the policy on the condonation of farmers’ past debts, including interests and penalties, owed to the NDA and the Philippine Carabao Center under “paiwi” or the Animal Dispersal Program.
Andaya said the implementing guidelines will outline the eligibility requirements and procedures for receiving production support through grants.
The law tasks the NDA with distributing dairy animals, equipment and other supplies to qualified smallholder and semicommercial dairy farmers, cooperatives and associations and local government units.
The law likewise prescribed turning over all regulatory processes for veterinary drugs, products and biologics, as well as other animal health products and devices from the Food and Drug Administration to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
The transition period should be completed within 180 days from the effectivity of the law.
However, Andaya said the transition period was extended beyond the initial May or June schedule to hire additional personnel and await the fund disbursement.
“But just the same, we are performing our regulatory functions as part of our operations,” he added. INQ
