Pampanga gets P7.7-M anti-bird flu ‘token’ from China

PAMPANGA, Philippines – Describing it as a “token of friendship,” the Chinese government on Tuesday, December 5, turned over P7.7 million to the provincial government here for Pampanga’s anti-avian influenza campaign. 

In a statement sent to the media, Angie Blanco, head of the Pampanga Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said the check donation was done in a simple ceremony at the Chinese embassy in Makati City. 

In his remarks at the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said the amount was just “small…first step” towards China’s friendship with this province.

“Please regard this as a token of friendship that has lasted thousands of years….China is not only a friend of the Philippines. China is also a friend of Pampanga,” Zhao said.

Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda, accompanied by former president and now Pampanga 2nd District Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, received the check from the Chinese ambassador. 

The governor thanked the Chinese government for the check and Arroyo for facilitating the donation. 

Pineda plans to use the amount for a mobile laboratory that would regularly go to poultry facilities all over the province to conduct tests on chickens and other birds as a pro-active measure against avian influenza.

Zhao said that China’s friendship with the Philippined entered its “golden era” during the Arroyo administration, and “dramatically and significantly improved” into a “new golden era” under President Rodrigo Duterte. 

The Pampanga poultry sector lost around P192 million this year due to avian influenza. (READ: Bird flu in PH: Pampanga under state of calamity)

Zhao said China understands the problems suffered by Pampanga, as it is not stranger to the avian influenza.

The first case of H7N9 avian influenza strain that affected some parts of Pampanga this year was first detected in China in 2013. – Rappler.com