DAGUPAN Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, who chairs the city council, supported the bangus producers’ position to retain the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) as manager of the seafood processing facility in Dagupan.

Fernandez said it’s to the city’s and the producers’ interests that the management of the processing plant is left with BFAR since the city government is currently in no position to take over the facility’s operation and management.

Mayor Benjamin Lim, however, earlier asserted that the plant should be reverted back to the city government or at least have a say in the management and operation.

“In our opinion, we prefer that the processing plant be managed by BFAR alone so the plant would be neutral and help exporters and fish producers,” Fernandez said.

“What is currently being done is already in itself a PPP,” she added.

The city council approved a resolution in June 2010 turning over to BFAR the plant’s control and operation.

Fernandez, who was also then vice mayor and city council chair, pointed out that the resolution was passed “because we know from the start that this (plant’s operations) needs a big amount”.

She said the city is still reeling from debts and spending for projects such as the construction of the Malimgas Market, which remains unprofitable, the purchase of the McAdore Hotel ostensibly to serve as a new city hall but has remained idle, and the acquisition of the Awai property in San Jacinto which the city never got to own.

All these projects were undertaken by Lim during his previous term as mayor.

“So to my knowledge this is not the right time for the city to meddle in the plant’s operations,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez also cautioned that “once politics enters the scene, those who are not supportive of politicians in power would likely not be welcomed to use the plant.”

MOA

Meanwhile, lawyer Demosthenes Escoto of the BFAR Legal Division said there is a need for a MOA between the city government and the BFAR to “perfect” the earlier resolution passed by the city council.

Escoto also stressed that BFAR will consider all options on the future of the processing plant.

“Nothing is definite yet about the agreement on what the terms and conditions would be agreed upon…We are open on what would be reached upon through a legitimate process,” he said.

Fernandez, however, maintained that she sees no need for another MOA.

Councilors Alfie Fernandez and Alvin Coquia echoed the vice mayor’s position to give BFAR a free hand to operate the plant for a few years until it peaks.

“If, despite efforts, it still fails, then that’s the time we take over,” said Councilor Fernandez.

Coquia, chair of the Committee on Agriculture, said BFAR has the expertise to run the plant and it is the right agency to do it.

The Korean government, through the Korean International Cooperation Agency, funded the construction of the $2.2 million seafood-processing complex located at the BFAR complex in Barangay Bonuan Binloc.

It was inaugurated in Nov. 28, last year but its operation has yet to reach full capacity.

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