Plant of shame

SOUTH Korean officials, benefactors of the P100-million Seafood Processing Plant in Dagupan, must be cringing as they watch how ugly politics is spoiling their good intentions of helping boost the aquaculture industry not just of the city but the rest of Pangasinan. Workers, meanwhile, who were counting on the plant for a means of livelihood, are now sitting on the sidelines, waiting helplessly for the plant to resume operations. Another casualty of the temporary closure is the processed seafood entrepreneurs who relied on the plant to handle their products and ended up losing business opportunities. What a shame.

As it is, the plant, which finally opened last year after facing challenges in clearing out its planned site of illegal settlers, is still struggling towards full operations with a workforce that has yet to master skills for the target output and a dearth in raw seafood supply to process. The current halt in production was prompted by Mayor Benjamin Lim, who wants management turned over to the city government, as he questioned the operations of the plant without a business permit from city hall.

The plant, whose management was turned over to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) by the previous city administration before Lim took office in July last year, is in fact owned by Dagupan City, which prides itself as the “Bangus Capital of the World”.  As such, the city hall must be the first to protect and preserve its assets – such as this gift to the people of Dagupan by the South Korean government – by enabling the seafood plant to re-open as soon as possible instead of putting on the squeeze to the detriment of laborers, the sustainability of the facility itself, and the aquaculture industry as a whole.

In the long term, privatization is still the best option for the plant if it hopes to operate efficiently and profitably. The BFAR, an arm of the Department of Agriculture, does have the technical expertise to get the facility started but as a government agency, it will always be subject to bureaucracy and, as we are seeing now, an easy prey of shameless politicking.

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Let her go

GLORIA Macapagal-Arroyo seeking medical treatment overseas is no big deal.  People trying to block her wish are out of order. The overriding reason she might be stopped from leaving is, she won’t come back anymore. That’s baloney.

Granting she might intend to stay abroad for good, so what?  If she did, she would have lost the opportunity to redeem herself and a chance to make history kindlier to her and her family.

Anyway, If the former President is found she must stand trial for whatever transgressions of Philippine laws that she may have committed while still in power, then, the full force of the law shall apply on her and other nations will close ranks to uphold it. Until then, let her fly to any country of her choice to seek treatment for her ailments.

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