Dismantling of illegal fish pens in Dagupan suspended again
THE Dagupan City Agriculture Office’s (CAO) “Bantay Ilog” task force has no plans of dismantling the illegal fish pens until it has completed the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of City Ordinance no. 2048-2015, prohibiting the establishment of fish pens.
Emma Molina, city agriculture officer, said the IRR draft is still a work in progress taking into consideration the resolution submitted by the City Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (CFARMC).
“When the IRR is done, we will fully implement the dismantling of all fish pens in the city”, said Molina. She, however, did not state a timetable for the completion of the IRR draft.
City Ordinance No. 2048-2015 (or amendment of Ordinance No. 551 prohibiting the establishment of fish pens and further amending Sections 36, 37, 38 and 56 of Ordinance No. 1768-2003 or the Dagupan City coastal Fisheries Resource Management Ordinance of Year 2003) was passed into law November last year.
Section 1 of Ordinance No. 551 approved by the council now states: “Prohibition of fish pens. Construction of fish pens in areas of public domain is prohibited. Thus, Sections 36, 37 and 38 of the Dagupan Fisheries Resource Management Ordinance as regards designated areas, design and layout and issuance of permit to operate fish pens are hereby amended.”
However, it allows use of fish traps like “poquet”, “batikwas”, “Skylab”, “Surewin”, “Skyblue” or other fish capture structures, including fish cages, of not more than 300 sq. meters in designated areas.
Also allowed by the amended ordinance are oyster beds and the traditional oyster stakes whose owners, including those of fish traps and fish cages, must pay fees, rental and charges to the city government.
Meanwhile, in Barangay Pugaro, where some 180 fish pens mushroomed a few months after Mayor Belen Fernandez announced the full implementation of the ban on fish pens, only a few have been dismantled again despite the December 31 deadline for dismantling issued by the CAO.
“We will dismantle all fish pens once the IRR is done”, said Molina. (Hilda Austria)
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