EDITORIAL

By September 4, 2018Editorial, News

Save the Dagupan bangus

AS the Dagupeños waded through floodwaters, the thought of felt scarcity of Dagupan bangus in markets did not seem to bother family households. Perhaps this occurrence was simply deemed a consequence of the extended severe flooding in the city, as it always was in the past.

The fact is, the felt scarcity of Dagupan bangus over the last few weeks was largely the result of fewer fishponds raising and producing Dagupan bangus.  And, apparently no one in the city officialdom has seen this as an impending consequence of the rush to backfill fishponds in the city, particularly in targeted economic development centers teeming with fishponds.

As the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod mulls another ordinance or rule to contain the rush of backfilling of fishponds in the city which many suspect to be one of the major causes of the extended severe flooding in the city, the city councilors should address the same issue but also in another context – to save the Dagupan bangus from imminent extinction.

The city government adopted the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) for a good measure – to lay the foundation for the city’s thrust for economic development. However, we fail to note a strategy in CLUP how to check the impact of anticipated rush to convert bangus fishponds into commercial sites.

Dagupan bangus is largely what placed the city in the world map as a worthy food product. And these are raised and found in fishponds that are now being backfilled, the fishponds that were acquired for a pittance in the past to produce and promote Dagupan bangus.

If nothing is done to ensure the continued ample production of Dagupan bangus, it will soon be survived only by an icon that will soon be known simply as Pangasinan Bangus from Binmaley, Bolinao, San Fabian, etc. No longer Dagupan bangus.

 

41 days

SO what if Teresita Leonardo-De Castro would sit as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for only 41 days?  What’s wrong with that?  Or, better yet, what’s wrong with following the rule of succession, which was what President Duterte did when he appointed De Castro as Chief Magistrate? Twice broken was the chain of command when the late Renato Corona (impeached in 2012) and next Ma. Lourdes Sereno (removed on a quo warranto petition last May) were appointed as chief justices successively.  With the appointment of De Castro, Mr. Duterte took cognizance of the sanctity of seniority, essentially restoring a tradition as sacred as the observance of Christmas every December 25.  The President’s critics are raising a public outcry.  Naturally.  They pounce on almost anything the President does, if only for the sake of protesting.  How petty can some people get.

 

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