Belen cries harassment
IT’S plain harassment.
Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez expressed this sentiment when the city government stopped a dike enhancement project her family is building on their fishpond located along the Jose R. De Venecia Expressway Extension in Barangay Pantal.
Fernandez said similar dike enhancement projects undertaken by other fishpond owners around the city were not subjected to the same restriction.
She cited as examples the backfilling of a fishpond at the bank of the Dawel River, on an area partly owned by the national government and where a supposed restaurant of a still unidentified investor is to be built, another beside the highway in Barangay Tambac, and the biggest was beside the radio station DZRD.
The backfilling operations of the Fernandez family’s fishpond was stopped by a city official and the government is now asking the family to secure a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) despite its presentation of a Certificate of Non-Coverage (CNC) issued by the Environmental Management Bureau, an agency of the DENR.
Certificate of Non-Coverage (CNC) issued to the Fernandez fishpond affirms that the dike enhancement project of a titled fishpond property does not need a permit from it.
Other requirements being asked from Fernandez are permits from the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, and locational clearance and other clearances from the local government.
Fernandez said this is the first time she has heard of such requirements and has asked city hall to put in writing the requirements and the corresponding legal basis.
NOT EXEMPT
Meanwhile, in a press statement, City Administrator Vladimir Mata said a CNC does not exempt the CSI Group of Companies, the Fernandez’s family corporation, from securing the necessary local permits for backfilling and construction of an access road which is 4 meters in width and 70 meters in length going to its fishpond.
Fernandez explained that the pathway, not a road, is being constructed merely to provide access for the caretaker to the fishponds for fish feeding.
Mata asserted that under Article X, Section 29 of City Ordinance No. 1840-2005, the City’s Revised Zoning Ordinance, “all owners or developers are required to secure a Location Clearance or Zoning Compliance Certificate from the Zoning Administrator or Zoning Officer prior to conducting any activity or undertaking or construction on their property.”
“In fact, even national regulations necessitate Location Clearance for any development activity as required in Administrative Order (AO) No. 20,series of 1985, which is implemented by the Housing and Land Use and Regulatory Board,” Mata said.
Mata also disagreed with the position of the DENR per letter of the EMB that the project is non-critical.
“Rampant backfilling of fishponds in the City has resulted in more frequent and heavier floods. It is evident that this unregulated activity has impeded water outflow into the rivers, thus causing flooding problems in the city,” Mata said.
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