President Marcos signed a law that aims to revitalize and modernize the local livestock and poultry industries through an annual P20-billion earmarked fund that will provide farmers with necessary support and interventions.
Marcos signed Republic Act (RA) 12308 or the Animal Industry Development and Competitiveness Act on Sept. 25, just three days before it would have lapsed into law.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) and various industry groups welcomed the enactment into law of the landmark measure that was four years in the making.
The new law establishes a 10-year earmarked fund called the Animal Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (AnCEF) that will have a yearly appropriation of P20 billion, bankrolled by the tariffs collected from imported animal products from meat to milk.
The annual appropriation will be allocated as follows: repopulation programs (26 percent), carabao and dairy herd build-up (seven percent), animal health welfare and disease control (six percent), capacity recovery fund (nine percent), processing facilities (14 percent), food safety and extension support (14 percent), animal feeds (five percent), credit assistance (15 percent), marketing activities (one percent), research and development (two percent) and accreditation of farmers (one percent).
Under the law, if tariff collections exceed P20 billion, the excess amount shall be used to provide farmers with direct financial support including for the purposes of recovery and compensation programs.
The establishment of the AnCEF has long been sought by both industry stakeholders and government officials since dreaded animal diseases like bird flu and African swine fever (ASF) entered the country.
Talks on the legislative measure began in 2021 after hog industry players lobbied for government support to prevent the local pork industry from collapsing due to ASF.
At the time, the rice competitiveness enhancement fund – the inspiration for AnCEF – was three years into its implementation, giving officials the idea to create a similar fund to support the local animal industries.
The bill was delayed multiple times due to political factors including the 2022 general elections and the leadership changes in the DA, sources said.
“This is a historic step toward a stronger, more sustainable and competitive livestock and poultry industry,” the DA-National Livestock Program (NLP) said.
The passage into law of RA 12308 comes at an opportune time since the budget of the DA’s NLP will be lower by around 29 percent next year.
Some of the NLP programs that were unfunded for 2026 were similar to components of AnCEF, such as the animal welfare program and recovery program.
DA officials earlier noted that they anticipated the creation of the AnCEF to supplement the budget of the NLP.
Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. president Danilo Fausto raised concerns that the P20 billion budget of AnCEF for its initial implementation this year may not be guaranteed since its funding will be sourced from the 2025 General Appropriations Act, primarily from the budgets of concerned implementing bureaus and agencies.
The AnCEF was earlier estimated to have a guaranteed budget of P7 billion from tariff collections, but it was revised upward to P15 billion after the DA validated the figures, and later to P20 billion.
Source - https://www.philstar.com
