Senator Francis Pangilinan said the proposed P1-billion Bio-Safe biosecurity enforcement program in the 2026 Department of Agriculture (DA) budget is crucial to preventing food smuggling, animal disease outbreaks, and supply shocks that lead to high prices and shortages.
As a member of the bicameral budget panel, Pangilinan said the fund will strengthen border controls, disease surveillance, and on-ground enforcement against threats such as African swine fever (ASF) and avian influenza, which have previously driven food inflation and wiped out farmer livelihoods.
The Bio-Safe program covers biosafety, biosecurity, and surveillance across crops, livestock, poultry, and fisheries, including stricter protocols in farms, laboratories, and ports. Measures include containment rules, upgraded monitoring, and improved facilities such as controlled animal housing and waste systems.
Pangilinan stressed that prevention is far cheaper than crisis response, citing ASF’s impact that wiped out about 5 million pigs, caused an estimated P200 billion in losses, and pushed pork inflation to around 20 percent in 2021. Bird flu outbreaks have likewise led to poultry culling, shortages, and price spikes.
He added that Bio-Safe will also help curb food smuggling by tightening sanitary and phytosanitary controls, requiring close coordination between the DA and Bureau of Customs, while stressing that strong accountability must ensure funds translate into real protection at farms, ports, and borders.IMT
