Video by INQUIRER.net’s Ryan Leagogo
Only one room in the piggery, too small for five people, is air-conditioned, according to the operations manager of Agrifortuna.
But four piggery buildings were tightly covered with thick blue tarpaulin. There were other buildings at the piggery complex.
Dr. Elenita Binay, former Mayor of Makati City, allegedly doesn’t want to smell the pigs. INQUIRER file photo
Dennis Casupang, the operations manager, said the tarpaulin-covered buildings were not air-conditioned but “the temperature had to be maintained at 28 degrees Celsius.”
He said that to maintain the temperature “we use a device that will gauge the temperature, not air-con. And to bring down the temperature, we bring down the tarpaulin.”
Agrifortuna, he said, maintained about a thousand heads of hogs.
San Miguel
Former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado earlier claimed that the piggery was air-conditioned because Elenita Binay, the wife of the Vice President, did not want to smell the odor.
At first, businessman Antonio Tiu, who is accused of being a dummy of the Vice President for the sprawling agricultural estate in Batangas, was not keen on allowing the media to the piggery, saying that it was managed by San Miguel Corp.
Tiu said the piggery was owned by Agrifortuna and being managed by San Miguel. “We have to ask their (San Miguel’s) permission first,” he said.
But some reporters were eventually allowed to see the piggery, including what caretakers claimed was formerly owned by the JBC Farms of Binay.
Protecting pigs
The members of the media had to go through biosecurity measures to protect the pigs from contamination.
“JBC stopped operating in 2010. The roof was damaged by Typhoon ‘Glenda,’” said Grace Martinez, who claimed she was one of the staff of Tiu and at the same time a local village official.
Casupang said the tour belied Mercado’s claim the piggery was air-conditioned.
Casupang said only one room in the piggery was air-conditioned to maintain a temperature needed for the “artificial insemination” of the hogs.
The reporters were, however, not shown the air-conditioned room, which Casupang said was also located within the piggery compound.
Casupang said a 36-degree Celsius temperature had to be maintained to preserve the quality of the “semen.”
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