BINMALEY – Enough is enough.

This was the answer of Mayor Simplicio Rosario to the call by owners of fish pens and cages that he extend the moratorium he had given to them for them to voluntarily demolish their contraptions.

Rosario expressed confidence however that coastal residents engaged in the operation of fishpens and fish cages will comply with their verbal agreement that their fishing gears should be voluntarily dismantled by them after the one-year moratorium.

The agreement between the residents and the municipal government would give way to the new plan of the municipal administration to really promote the culture of bangus and other marine products based on the provisions of this town’s newly enacted local fishery code.

Under that agreement, all concerned parties were given one-year moratorium within which to operate their fish pen and cages and after which they would voluntarily demolish the same.

The municipal government will be the one to demolish the structures whose owners would renege on their promise.

All fish traps and fishing gears, including the fish therein will accrue to the municipal government in order to pay the wages of the manpower used.

When a fishkill ensued last year, the municipal government could not at once implement the dismantling operation due to the absence of a fishery ordinance that would warrant the move, Rosario said.

But this time, he said, his office will no longer give another chance for the operators because time is getting short for the implementation and regulations for this kind of business in the municipality.

He said this will prevent the occurrence of any more fish kill that could bring another havoc to the town’s fishing industry.

“We will not hesitate to use iron hands, if needed, just to implement the law as embodied in the local fishery code of 2006 because I know that this will benefit the majority of the fisher folk, especially  those engaged in fish pen and cages,” he said.

Rosario believes that his constituents can no longer question his decision because his office had already given ample time for the fish pen and cage owners to cooperate with the plans and programs of the municipal government. – A.P.E.

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