Retiring JDV plans modernization of fishponds
FOURTH District Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. is retiring from politics soon, but he is not taking it easy as he prepares for his new role – as an advocate for improved livelihood for fish farmers and as an entrepreneur himself.
Last week, De Venecia hosted two foreign experts to help modernize the bangus fishponds in Dagupan and enable fish farmers to produce and earn more.
“We are just keeping our promise during the campaign that we will help our constituents in Dagupan improve their lives and snatch them away from the stranglehold of poverty,” said De Venecia whose wife Gina will succeed him as the congressional representative for the district.
Recent visitors were were Bill Cobo, a Japanese-American scientist, engineer and entrepreneur involved in salmon culture and production in Alaska and his assistant, Dr. Andy Liang, also a scientist and entrepreneur from Taiwan.
Cobo and Liang, together with Dr. Westly Rosario, chief of the National Integrated Fishery Technology Development Center (NIFTDC), visited De Venecia’s fishpond in sitio Watac, Barangay Mamalingling to plan for the development of fish ponds for individual fish farmers that would lead to increased production and improve the quality of their bangus produce.
Liang said they are bringing in new technology proven most effective in Taiwan as they had done 15 years ago when they introduced tiger prawns from Taiwan to the Philippines.
Liang noted that bangus fry were being smuggled to Taiwan but the situation more than a decade ago was reversed as the Philippines is now getting its fry from his country because of the improved hatchery operations technology.
He said technicians from Taiwan will come to Dagupan to teach fish farmers the new technology in hatchery production so that the country can begin to import as well.
De Venecia said the visit of Cobo and Liang is part of the program to mobilize the private and the public sectors in the overall effort to modernize the fishponds of Dagupan.
He said the full operation of the modern PhP110 million RP/ Dagupan-Korea Seafood Processing Plant in Bonuan Binloc necessitates the modernization of the fishponds in the city and neighboring towns.
He added that the possibility of putting up of an oyster sauce factory was discussed with Cobo and Liang to benefit the island barangays of Dagupan that are now currently producing large quantities of oysters.
ENTREPRENEUR
Meanwhile, De Venecia said after his term in Congress ends, he is a shifting as a fulltime entrepreneur, looking after and maximizing his family’s 20-hectare fishpond.
While at his fish farm last week, De Venecia supervised the seeding of the fishpond with three million bangus fry, which he imported from Bali, Indonesia.
“Apart from this, I will not have much to do except being an assistant to my wife “Manay Gina”, said De Venecia laughing.
As Speaker of the House of Representatives, De Venecia initiated the revival of an idle oyster depuration plant in Barangay Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan built by the Japanese government during the Marcos era to become a first class research facility of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
Then he funded the establishment of the NIFTDC’s National Bangus Center and hatchery, the country’s first live fish market, a seafood restaurant, and the Asian Fisheries Academy.
“Probably, I gave out more than P150 million from my Priority Development Assistance Fund for NIFTDC and in the continuing research for milkfish,” De Venecia said.
He gave assurance that his successor, Gina, will continue to give support from her congressional funds.—LM
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