Chicken boodle fight with Duterte set

If President Duterte is not afraid to eat chicken, you shouldn’t be either.

To ease consumers’ fears that the bird flu outbreaks in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija provinces have made poultry and poultry products unsafe, Mr. Duterte is traveling to the City of San Fernando in Pampanga province, on Monday to feast on balut, fried duck and chicken barbecue, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol told reporters on Thursday.

Piñol said he, other Department of Agriculture (DA) and local government officials would join the boodle fight called “Sama-sama, Tulong-tulong sa Pagbangon at Pagsulong.”

The idea came after Piñol met with poultry industry officials for a discussion of the huge losses that the sector had been incurring since bird flu hit the town of San Luis in Pampanga and Jaen and San Isidro in Nueva Ecija.

According to Bong Inciong, president of the United Broiler Raisers Association, the industry would have lost P1 billion a month had the DA not lifted the ban on poultry movement from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao.

Piñol told reporters that when he asked Mr. Duterte in a phone call to join the boodle fight in Pampanga, the President laughed and immediately agreed to go.

The DA has constantly assured the public that it is safe to eat chicken.

Aside from joining the feast, Mr. Duterte will also preside over the first payment of compensation to poultry raisers whose birds have been culled.

Piñol said P20 million would be paid to poultry raisers in San Luis.