DAGUPAN’S agriculture office is under fire from the city’s finance committee for its poor collection of fees and permits from fish pen operations as half of the operators are doing business illegally.

And City Agriculture Officer Emma Molina feels helpless about it.

The city council has said it will look into the matter, but the councilors have said they first need to see more information from Molina.

Molina earlier reported to the council that half of the more than 700 illegal fish pens scattered in all the municipal waters of Dagupan are illegal.

She also said that she believes she lacks the necessary authority to dismantle illegal fish pens or stop those putting up new ones. She added that illegal fish pen operators, when told to remove their structures, simply ignore the order.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, chairman of the council, said once Molina has provided them with more information, they will review the fishery ordinance which was has been in effect since 2003.

“At the same time, we want to know if the stocking density provided for in the fishery ordinance is really followed. Under the ordinance, there are 10 zones in the city rivers that had been identified. But there are portions of the city’s rivers that had been tagged as polluted, so there must be no fish pens in these areas,” Fernandez said.

Meanwhile, Councilor Alfredo Quinto Sr., chair of the committee on agriculture, said one detail they would like to see is the list of fish pen operators.

Quinto said Molina promised to submit the list when she appeared before the city council on October 26.

With the report, Quinto’s committee, together with the Committee on Laws headed by Councilor Michael Fernandez, will meet to find out why the city failed to reach its target collection despite provisions in the city’s fishery ordinance.

Quinto said they will assess whether the law lacks teeth, which accounts for the city’s failure to meet its target tax collection from fish pen operations.

Vice Mayor Fernandez also said the council will invite the city treasurer to shed light on the amount of money already collected by the city from the operations of fish pens as compared to the projections.

FEES

Meanwhile, both Fernandez and Quinto are not keen on granting the proposal of Councilor Lino Fernandez, himself a fish pen operator, for the reduction of fees from fish pen operators.

The fee levied on operators is P6, 000 per 300 square meter portions of river, with two harvests per year.

Estimates put lost income for the city   from illegal operators at P1.8 million per year.

“The fish pen operators must have to pay because the money they will be paying will be siphoned to improve the conditions of rivers so that they can harvest more fish,” Fernandez said.—LM

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