By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

BELIEVE you me, God really works out worldly issues and concerns in His own time and in His own all-knowing ways.

Take the overnight proliferation of illegal fish pens and oversized fish cages in the rivers of Dagupan City soon as Brian Lim became mayor.

I persisted writing about these illegal fish pens in my past columns, hoping that someone in the city would, indeed, raise hell knowing what the Brian Lim administration was up to. I even challenged the city councilors to probe the proliferation of the fish pens in violation of the city’s fishery ordinance, to no avail.

And when city residents bewailed the worsening of flooding in barangays, I pointed how the illegal fish pen operations that sprouted like wild mushrooms as one of the causes of incessant flooding in the city streets. It’s a fact that the daily dumping of thousands of sacks of fish feeds were raising the level of the river bed due to the silt caused by the unconsumed fish feeds.  There was not even a pipsqueak heard from any barangay kap to echo that fact. (And, I never mentioned the proliferation of oversized fish cages blocking navigational lanes until now).

Geez, I honestly began to think there was nothing that anyone can do to stop the flagrant corruption because the new administration had the protection racket system well locked-in from Day 1 under the watchful eye of his barkada that set up office inside the mayor’s office. I was wrong to forget that there’s the all-knowing God in all these.

As fate would have it, the issue vs illegal fish pens came to light right smack in the middle of the discussion on the 2022 annual budget of the city council. It was not even about a probe on the flouting of the city ordinance on fishery that I pressed on for months. The issue was raised in a “By the way…” thing when the office of the city agriculture was made to respond to a complaint during a clarificatory meeting on the Devolution Transition Plan regarding services that will be absorbed by the City Agriculture Office (CAO).

The acting city agriculturist, Teresita Pascua, was asked to act on the (illegal) fish pens and the oversized fish cages that were clogging the buffer zone of rivers because these were not only “slowing down the flow of water during low tide and high tide” but were blocking passageways of commuter boats. She said, she would.

Then when Councilor Marcelino Fernandez asked routinely about the performance of the Bantay Ilog Task Force (BITF) that he correctly presumed to be under the direction of the city agriculture office, a seemingly harmless, insignificant response from the city agriculturist confirmed what I had long suspected. In an effort perhaps to negate the impression that paint her as negligent and incompetent because the BITF was sleeping on the job, she was quick to correct the city council! She nonchalantly declared the Bantay Ilog Task Force is not under the city agriculturist office direction and supervision but under the office of the city mayor. BOOM!

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QUESTIONS THAT WERE NOT ASKED. The city agriculturist‘s declaration unwittingly pointed squarely to the city mayor’s office that takes charge of the operations of the BITF, the watchdog and implementor of the city government of the city ordinance on fishery! 

So, in the absence of any seeming awareness of the consequences of the vast illegal fish pen operations in the city’s tributaries, I have these questions for Ms. Pascua: Was it the mayor’s office 1) That ordered the Bantay Ilog Task Force not to confront owners and operators of illegal fish pens and fish cages in city’s tributaries? 2) That guaranteed protection against Bantay Ilog TF? 3) That ordered her to turn a blind eye to the rampant violations of the city ordinance? 4) That ordered the BITF to collect the monthly protection money due from the operators of illegal fish pens and oversized fish cages?

Finally, it’d be interesting to know from the BITF personnel if they even bothered to check if any of the illegal fish pen and fish cage operators are actually holding permits to operate!

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TEMPLATE FOR PROTECTION RACKET. Frankly, I was not completely surprised by that unintended revelation from Ms. Pascua.

It’s no different from the P20K monthly protection racket that victimized fish vendors at the Magsaysay Market for months. The vendors exposé unwittingly led to the doors of the market supervisor who reports directly to the office of the city mayor.  (See the pattern? It’s the office of the city mayor that directs the market marshals much like the BITF!).

Thanks to the refusal of the city council committee (led by Councilor Tess Coquia) to bow and surrender to the intimidations and insults hurled at the city council by the market supervisor (and his market marshals ) by ignoring the former’s call to shed light on the fish vendors’ dilemma. Mercifully, the fish vendors are vindicated by the filing of cases initially against the market marshals, the case that will inevitably drag the market supervisor down with his market marshals… and the mayor’s office?

Perhaps, the city council was not aware at the time, when it was confronted by the fish vendors expose,´ that they were being shown the modus operandi of the protection racket in the city, directed from the city mayor’s office. When the vendors stopped paying P20k monthly for protection, they were immediately thrown out despite paying their daily payment of fees due the city government.

In the case of the fish pens and fish cages operators, no violations are reported because the racket was proceeding smoothly. Do we need to be a rocket scientist to understand and know what’s going on between and among the operators, the BITF personnel and the office of the city mayor?

I wish the city council also remembered to ask the city agriculturist: Why are alien bangus being delivered to the city markets much bigger in volume than what was prescribed in the city ordinance? Is she aware that truckloads of alien bangus are brought to Dagupan then dispatched to other places branded as Dagupan bangus? Are the inspectors also reporting directly to the office of the city mayor, not to her office or the police??

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SAVE THE TREES, DESTROY THE POSTERS. Finally, we are in the open campaign season for 2022 elections. Labo-labo na ang posters ng candidates ng national at local elections!

I wonder how our local Comelec supervisors in Pangasinan will respond to the direct order of PRRD to remove all illegal sized posters and all posters glued and nailed in public areas, outside designated common poster areas in towns and cities. 

Considered as public areas are highways, roads, streets, parks, terminals, churches, malls. In other words, where public converge. (Safe from the reach of Comelec and DILG are posters installed INSIDE private compounds).

The priority in the presidential directive should be the outright removal and destruction of posters nailed to trees. In this regard, since barangay officials are mandated to protect their environment, it behooves them to remove the posters nailed to trees on their own without need to be deputized by Comelec. In fact, an empowered barangay should feel free to organize volunteers to monitor and remove all campaign posters that hurt their trees.

Meanwhile, local candidates on their own initiative should be seen correcting the violations committed by their poster teams and should direct the removal of their posters nailed to trees and those outside of designated common poster areas.

Speaking of common poster areas, it’d help the situation for candidates if barangays can designate at least 3 common areas in their jurisdiction.

The PUNCH can help in the effort by publishing Comelec’s list of candidates that continue to violate the rule after a week’s warning. But will local Comelec supervisors bother to officially warn candidates of violations in their areas? Surely, they and their personnel can’t miss seeing the violations when they report for work every day! 

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