MAYOR Belen Fernandez will personally lead the Task Force Bantay Ilog to see to the demolition of illegal fish pens whose owners ignored her ultimatum last year, effectively rebuking her City Agricultural Officer for deciding to suspend the dismantling of illegal fish pens operating in the city’s tributaries.

The mayor said any extension of the grace period is contrary to her directive to the owners in October last year that they had only until December 31, 2015 to dismantle their illegal structures.

City Agriculturist Emma Molina told The PUNCH earlier that she decided to postpone the dismantling of the fish pens until the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the amended city ordinance banning fish pens. The ordinance was passed in October 2015.

Ms. Fernandez conducted an ocular inspection of Barangays Pugaro and Salapingao last week to verify The PUNCH’s report about the continued operation of illegal fish pens, she became angry when she saw the rivers still teeming with huge fish pens.

The mayor said she will lead the demolition of the illegal fish pens next week after

she had been advised by the city legal office that it found no legal impediment for the demolition of the illegal structures even in the absence of the IRR that Molina invoked.

Ms. Fernandez said the bigger fish pens will be the first to go.

Meanwhile, the mayor ordered the City Agriculture Office to prepare for an intensive dismantling operations that will also involve the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Philippine National Police.

“We will need more policemen for this dismantling and demolition operation because our Task Force Bantay Ilog had been fired upon in the past by fish pen caretakers and operators,” Ms. Fernandez said.

She said among the big fish pens that will go first are those located in Salapingao owned by Darius de los Angeles of Binmaley, and in Barangay Pugaro owned by Erwin Dee. (Leonardo Micua)

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