Punchline
How Dagupan lost P2.5-M a year
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
FIRST of all, I stand to be corrected.
All along, I was of the mistaken belief that the Dagupan City Council amended the city’s fisheries ordinance without any provision for penalties! I was wrong. That was the foolish layman in me trying to interpret the nuances of lawmaking.
A highly respected lawyer in the city gently corrected me and pointed out that the penalty is in the original ordinance. And the ordinance says there is a P5,000 penalty for those who violate the ordinance, in this case, the fish pen owners!
So, I was also wrong to castigate the City Agriculture Office (CAO) only for allowing the proliferation of fish pens even after the ordinance was amended. Now that the true situation on the fish pens has been clarified, I realized the CAO is even in deeper rut than I thought. It deliberately deprived the city of millions in potential revenues!
Clearly, City Agriculturist Emma Molina is patently guilty of dereliction of duty, specifically, not only over the proliferation of illegal fish pens in the city’s rivers and tributaries for the past four years but also for failing to impose the penalty provision in the ordinance. Her failure to enforce the ordinance effectively made the city lose P2.5 million in potential fines at the very least (That’s P5k fine on 500 illegal fish pens, minimum).
I sure hope the city auditor has this noted in her report, and that through her the Ombudsman can be prompted to file the administrative and criminal case of graft against her motu propio.
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ONLY MBTF’S DEFENSE. Former City Legal Officer George Mejia is just as guilty for not finding cause to charge the unscrupulous fish pen owners in court for violating the city ordinance. Worse, he has not filed a case to fight off the claim of some fish pen owners that they hold Torrens titles to parts of the river. After acknowledging the existence of these titles for the past three years, Atty. Mejia never challenged the claim in court to this day in spite of the national law that clearly states that any private property that is eventually eroded and has becomes part of the river is considered part of public domain. Without that case in court, the illegal fish pens will expectedly continue to operate beyond the October 30 deadline set by Mayor Belen Fernandez, contrary to what she promised Dagupeños! Why? Molina will continue to invoke the illegal fish pen owners’ rights over the river!
Thank heavens, the city government has a new city legal officer, Atty. Vicky Cabrera! She impresses most in the legal circle as a no-nonsense officer of the court. Let’s hope she corrects this corruptive malady that’s already staring down at her today! She can do the city a great service by filing the cases against the abusive fish pen operators and to promptly contest the claims of Torrens titles over parts of the river before the next deadline for demolition or dismantling of pens on October 30.
The records of the CAO should have the names of the violators but if for some reason Molina suddenly cannot produce the complete list, to suspect that she is protecting the illegal activities in her office would be an understatement!
Atty. Cabrera’s prompt action is the only remaining valid defense of Mayor Belen that her administration will never tolerate graft and corruption under her watch!
It might also help her to start asking around: Who in city agriculture office, in city hall and city council benefitted from the millions of illegal profits gained from protecting the illegal operations of the fish pens for the past four years?
If that doesn’t smack of a multi-million protection racket, I don’t know what is.
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JUDAS 11? This new situation also leads me back to the Dagupan City councilors.
They amended the ordinance in 2103 ostensibly to give city hall more teeth in pursuing the campaign contra illegal fish pens. Yet, the proliferation of the fish pens, from the term of former Mayor Benjie Lim to Mayor Belen Fernandez, has been going on with their full knowledge!
From their inaction, one can get the impression that they are either part of the protection racket or are simply too dumb to notice that the CAO has been tolerating a gross and blatant violation of the city fisheries ordinance with impunity.
Curiously, my attention was never called nor was I corrected by any member of the majority and the minority about my mistaken impression that there is no penalty for violating the amended ordinance. Is it possible that they were all and still are sharing a multi-million secret?
Perhaps it may have been too much to expect of the Dagupan councilors to ask Molina to explain her failure to stop the proliferation of the fish pens but wonder of all wonders, not one of them dared to ask why not a single fish pen owner has been fined as provided by the ordinance they passed.
During the term of Mayor Benjie, I knew of a Judas 9 in the city council who shamelessly facilitated the sellout of Dagupan. Is it possible we now have a Judas 11 today protecting the fish pen operators? All for one, one for all? Tsk-tsk.
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NO ACCOUNTABILITY. PDU30 has sought the postponement of the barangay and SK elections because he was certain that the drug syndicates will take the opportunity to keep their operations well entrenched in the barangays. The formula is simple: They will flood the barangays with drug profits in the name of their chosen bets.
This sudden and unexpected decision to postpone disappointed many aspiring candidates who felt they now have a better chance at replacing their corrupt kapitans who’ve been protecting the illegal drug trade in their communities.
But all is not lost.
There will be a Barangay Assembly on October 11. And, I have no doubt that the discussion will focus mainly on how their respective barangays can be declared drug-free!
However, it can no longer be denied that the current war on drugs has to a large extent polarized communities. There are the rabid among us who want a no-prisoners policy while others still will decry the gangland summary executions suffered by families in the barangay. Still others will protest the ineffectiveness of barangay officials in protecting residents from gung-ho cops who are likely to shoot-and-ask questions later, while others will complain about the lack of decisiveness on the part of barangay officials in eliminating the drug pushers, etc.
The other important agenda should be a talk on corruption. Barangays now enjoy full control over funds that historically have not been subjected to serious audit by the government. It is time residents make officials realize that from hereon they will be made accountable for all the monies entrusted to them by law or face charges before the Ombudsman. Cite the executive order on Freedom of Information!
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REAL CHANGE. The momentum for real change is now with the people. The decent and peace-loving barangay folk should take advantage of this because the opportunity to change is in their hands finally. With the public number for complaints 8888 launched by the PDU30 administration, no one can longer claim to be untouchable.
PDU30 himself has demonstrated that he is not willing to lose the momentum by minimizing his tough, crass talk. He wants the drug lords, pushers and users on the defensive and running. Now is the time for the visionary and honest in the barangays to come forward to assert themselves as the epitome of public servants.
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