November 22, 2005

Philippines to provide Indonesia aid against bird flu

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said the country would provide Indonesia aid against bird flu in the form of technical assistance. Her announcement came during the recent Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Busan, South Korea.

A Philippine technical team of three experts would visit Indonesia during early December to help health officials there fight bird flu.

President Arroyo had earlier approved 2.5 billion pesos for allocation to the Department of Agriculture (DA) for its anti-bird flu programme. This amount would be added to the DA's 15.7 billion-peso proposed budget for 2006.

Philippine Agriculture Undersecretary Salvador Salacup said 1.5 billion pesos of the bird flu budget would go to the first stage of the programme, which included local monitoring and surveillance nationwide. Veterinary officials would also assist in monitoring efforts.

The money would also finance laboratory tests, procurement of protective equipment and a bird flu awareness campaign. Salacup said 300 million pesos would be allocated to the awareness campaign. The remaining budget amount would go to the second stage of the anti-bird flu campaign, he added.

Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban said the budget for bird flu would also be used to upgrade and expand laboratory facilities to detect the H151 virus. He added that the Philippines already had 13 such facilities.