MANILA, Philippines— To say that the Department of Agriculture (DA) is manipulating data is “uncalled for,” DA Secretary William Dar told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
“I’d like to take except exception that we are manipulating data. That’s not our work,” Dar said during the hearing of the Senate Committee of the Whole looking into the food security crisis brought about by the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak.
Because of the outbreak, the government temporarily lowered the tariff rates for imported pork products and considered raising the minimum access volume (MAV) on pork imports from 54,000 metric tons (MT) to 400,000 MT.
READ: Duterte favors increase in MAV for pork i…
Keep on reading: ‘Data manipulation’ on pork imports?’That’s ‘uncalled for,’ cries DA chief