Political will is the key

By Eva C. Visperas

How do you stop the operation of fish pens?

Re-elected Mayor Sammy Rosario of Binmaley, whose town used to have hundreds of illegal fish pens and cages when he assumed his post, said it was not an easy task demolishing these fishing apparatus.

First, one has to be ready to face the consequences to one’s political career. The wealthy operators will likely campaign against you but the lowly fishermen will vote for you as they will benefit from this move.

But if one is packed with political will, ready to sacrifice personal ambitions for the greater welfare of the people, then it can be done – give the rivers and the coastal waters breathing space so the fishes can survive and ordinary fisher folks could benefit from them.

For a long time, rich operators of fish pens and cages in Binmaley profited tremendously from raising bangus (milkfish). But Mayor Sam has a heart for the poor. He did what he was supposed and expected to do.

He conducted a series of dialogues with the operators concerned, including barangay officials and poor fishermen. It was not a hit on the first, second or third attempt. He patiently convinced the operators, pursuing one-on-one talks with them, so they would   voluntarily   demolish their fishpens and cages.

“They realized I was doing the right governance and I asked them to help me,” he said.

Today, only the pasabing, the patalabaan remain while nets of fish pens and cages have been hanging dry for several months now (or was it a year already?). No one attempted to resume his pen and cage operation since. They respected the mayor’s request.

His next challenge now is how to convince the local chief executives of his neighbors, Dagupan City and Lingayen, to do the same. He knows that if these two neighbors continue to have fish pens, then Binmaley’s efforts would be futile as Mayor Sam could not stop the water flow from Dagupan and Lingayen.

This Binmaley experience can be a model for other towns whose coastal waters teem with fish pens and cages.

Anda and Bolinao recently experienced huge losses amounting to multi-million pesos due to massive fishkill. (Of course, Binmaley also suffered several massive fishkills in the past prior to the dismantling of the fishpens).

Anda Mayor Nestor Pulido said as an aftermath of the fishkill in his town, on one side, he commiserated with the operators, but on one hand, he felt vindicated when he warned them but ignored his pleas to observe proper rules, to dismantle units blocking the water flow, lest they suffer the consequences. The fishkill proved him right.

Pulido said he wants to have a moratorium on fishpens operations in his town. Very good.

I commend him for that.

But, I think all other local chief executives should do more and take a good look and duplicate what Mayor Sam did.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/business-log/)

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