By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff reporter
Laoag City—The city government here has begun construction of a new multi-million computerized slaughterhouse.
The said facility is located at Brgy. Camangaan, this city, near the City Agriculture Office.
City engineer Roy Tomas said the new city government-owned slaughterhouse will be computer-operated and will have the newest equipment and machines from the National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC).
The city’s counterpart for the project is the lot and the construction of new building.
Phase 1 of the project started last year with a funding of PHP1.5 million. Currently, the project is on its phase 2 with a funding of PHP3.3 million.
The impasse on the city government’s 2019 budget, however, may delay the project’s phase 3. Phase 3 has an allocation of PHP5 million under “capital outlay” in the 2019 budget.
“Ket inggana a saan a maaprubaran tay 2019 budget ket saan met a masagid daytoy a pondo isu nga on hold payla dagitoy a proyekto,” Mr. Tomas said.
He disclosed that the PHP5 million from the 2019 budget includes the completion of said building.
As of press time, Mr. Tomas said all the equipment and machineries were already delivered and is temporarily housed at his office.
Reacting to this, city veterinarian Dr. Arthur Cabello thanked the present administration headed by Laoag Mayor Chevylle V. Fariñas for considering his “long-time” request for a “high tech” city government-owned slaughterhouse.
Mr. Cabello said the present city slaughterhouse needs a plenty of water to maintain its cleanliness in time of butchering.
It also needs the latest equipment and machineries since Laoag City caters a big number of animals butchered daily.
The Ilocos Times learned that the municipality of Dingras has recently had their new and latest “double AA”-type of slaughterhouse.
Dingras Mayor Erdio Valenzuela, with representatives from the National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC), recently conducted a dry run of said high tech slaughterhouse.
The Dingras slaughterhouse is “first of its kind” in Ilocos Norte, the only other similar slaughterhouse in Ilocos Region is in Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur.