IT TOOK the wrath of Typhoon Pepeng for the Dagupan City Sanggunian to unearth what appears to be a conspiracy in the city hall to promote and protect illegal operations of fish pens in the city’s rivers and tributaries.

After an inventory in the aftermath of Typhoon Pepeng, it has been determined that 50 per cent of some 700 bangus fish pens originally allowed to operate located in various rivers here were illegally operating.

The information obtained by the city council from City Agriculture Officer Emma Molina was enough to prompt the councilors to set a review the city’s fishery ordinance.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, chair of the city council, said Molina admitted that half of the standing fish pens in the city are not paying a single centavo to the city government.

The council’s committee on agriculture, chaired by Council Alfredo Quinto Jr., will set the review of the city’s fishery ordinance to determine where the loophole lies.

Quinto said the committee will also schedule a public hearing for the purpose of amending the edict if necessary.

After the session, Molina told newsmen that there were some 700 fish pens that used to be covered by an Aquaculture Lease Agreement (ALA), but after a number of cycles of production, half did not renew their ALA but continued to operate.

Most of the fish pens Dagupan City were eventually destroyed by the big flood that hit the city from October 8 to 14, letting loose millions of pesos worth of bangus.

Fernandez said Molina was admonished by the city council and was warned about tolerating owners of illegal fish pens to rebuild their structures and, instead to promptly file cases against them.

The vice mayor said the city agriculturist was directed by the council to continue the dismantling of the illegal fish pens that remain standing and operative.

Fernandez warned the fish pen investors that the city government will seek to strictly enforce the ordinance and unless they comply with the law, their investments would go to naught because these would be dismantled if not covered by permits.

The fishery ordinance has identified different zones where fish pens are suitable and so specified that no pens should be constructed along existing navigational lanes and on areas which were found not feasible to raise bangus.

The ordinance also prescribes that holders of ALA must pay P6,000 yearly to the city government per  300 square meter portions of any river occupied.

While the fee is considered very minimal, Councilor Lino Fernandez, a fishpond and fish pen operator himself, said his fellow pen owners have not been earning enough because of the recurring floods in Dagupan, are seeking a reduction of the fee.

The vice mayor said the request for reduction of ALA fees must first be studied thoroughly to ensure that the target in tax collection of the city will not be severely affected.

She cautioned the city council about any action to be taken on proposal to reduce the fee because it could prompt other tax payers to also seek reduction of their fees being levied by the city.—LM

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