The City Veterinary and Agriculture Office (CVAO) disclosed that the members of the committee who were tasked to study the best options on how to pursue the put up of the modern abattoir are still scrutinizing which of the two options will be adopted.
City Veterinarian Dr. Brigit Piok stated that the two options that were earlier presented to city officials for consideration on how to improve the current state of the city’s slaughterhouse is for the project to be implemented by the local government and operate as an economic enterprise or for the city to loan the required amount to construct the modern abattoir within the property that was ceded to the city by the agriculture department at the Baguio Dairy farm.
She said that the decision of the committee on what option will be adopted is currently being awaited so that the project will be able to push through with the project which is geared towards improving the state of the slaughterhouse.
At present, the city veterinarian disclosed that the design and cost estimates of the modern abattoir are now being finalized while funds for the project is being sourced out to ensure that the project will be realized in the future.
According to her, if it will be the local government that will fund the implementation of the project, it will be best that it will be operated by the city through an economic enterprise.
However, if it will be privately operated, then the city’s private partner should be the one to fund the implementation of the project to remove the burden from the local government in sourcing out the funds for the same.
In an earlier presentation, Piok revealed that the city needs at least P108 million to put up the proposed modern abattoir and to mechanize its operations to ensure better operations of the facility.
Concerned city officials benchmarked the proposed modern abattoir to the state-of-the-art slaughterhouses of Tanauan City and Batangas city which are two of the best abattoirs in Luzon that were built with the support of the agriculture department.
Piok expressed hope that the put up of the modern abattoir will be realized the soonest so that the services offered by the city’s slaughterhouse will be elevated to a higher level with the used of updated mechanized equipment for quality meat products.
For the past several years, the city had been looking for a suitable property to relocate the city’s slaughterhouse and to upgrade the same but the same encountered rough sailing until such time that technical personnel were able to convince city officials to use a portion of the property that was ceded to the city by the agriculture department situated at the Baguio Dairy farm for the aforesaid endeavor.
Aside from its mechanized operations and wider space to be able to accommodate more animals that will be butchered in the facility, the modern abattoir will embark on the expertise of well-trained personnel who will be in charge of the management and operations of the facility to provide better services for the abattoir’s increasing number of clients caused by the increasing demand of meat products from the increasing number of people in the city. By Dexter A. See
