The Philippines has lifted the temporary ban it imposed on the importation of domestic and wild birds and their products including poultry meat, day-old chicks and eggs originating from Germany.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) announced this after it ascertained from the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) that no new outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) occurred within 90 days after the cleaning and disinfection of infected premises in infected poultry farms conducted last December 26.

“Based on the evaluation of the Bureau of Animal Industry [BAI], the risk of contamination from importing poultry and poultry products from Germany is negligible,” said Arthur Yap in Memorandum Order 6.

With the lifting of the ban, BAI resumed the issuance of veterinary quarantine clearance for importing domestic and wild birds from Germany.

The temporary ban was imposed by the Philippines in July 2007, after the HPAI virus subtype H5N1 was detected in geese and ducks in the province of Thuringen in the district of Saalfelder Hohe.

While Germany is not known as the Philippines’ traditional source of poultry imports, Yap said in his July 2007 memo that the ban was put in place to prevent travelers from bringing in birds and similar products from Germany.

The DA said the ban is necessary to prevent the entry of the AI virus to protect the health of the local poultry population.

Currently, the Philippines is one among  few Asian countries that have remained free from the dreaded AI virus, which has since crippled poultry industries in the region and caused the deaths of scores of people. 

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said several governors all over the country threw their support behind the government’s “rice self-sufficiency” program by committing to detail their agricultural extension workers to the DA’s regional offices and allocating a portion of their unremitted Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) totaling P12.5 billion.

A GROUP of German investors in the Philippines said the political infrastructure in the government plays a major hindrance in attracting more investments into the country, citing the absence of a resolution to the long-delayed opening of the $450-million Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).

THE country is losing thousands of potential German tourists to Indonesia and Thailand every week because big tour operators in Germany are currently avoiding the Philippines due to the absence of international airports in key tourist destinations here.

The Philippines has lifted the temporary ban it imposed on the importation of domestic and wild birds and their products including poultry meat, day-old chicks and eggs originating from Germany.

GOVERNMENT-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) said Wednesday that it has moved the bidding for the 289-megawatt (MW) Tiwi Geothermal Power Plant in Tiwi, Albay, and the 458.53-MW MakBan Geothermal Power Plant situated in Laguna and Batangas provinces to June 27 this year.

PATRIOTISM,” simply, is the love for one’s own country. It is a term generally used to describe: (1) the attitude that the members of a nation have when they care about their national identity, and (2) the actions that the members of a nation take when seeking to achieve (or sustain) independence/self-determination.