Mayor Belen and Super Ate
By Leonardo Micua
WHILE many people in Dagupan were still snoring in bed early Friday morning, Mayor Belen Fernandez and her staff were already raring to conduct a new round of inspection of the city’s rivers to see the progress of demolition of illegal fish pens by personnel of the Bantay Ilog Task Force.
That time, Mayor Belen and OIC Agriculturist Patrick Dizon were joined by Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’ Mary Ann Salomon for her to also know the magnitude of the problem of the city rivers, whose water many already know is the life blood of Dagupan’s bangus industry, and if its condition continues to deteriorate, there may be no tasty Dagupan bangus in the market soon.
The BFAR official was shown the many illegal fish pens that are still teeming in various rivers, numbering 1,427 and only 257 are operating legally. But thanks to the warning made a month ago by the mayor because a few fish pen owners finally came out of their respective senses and did not restock their pens anymore with fresh fingerlings after making their last harvest.
But what is bad is that the owners of these pens abandoned their contraptions in the water and did not voluntarily remove the structures as they said they would, leaving the daunting task of removing all these standing structures in the hands of the Dagupan government through its task force Bantay Ilog headed by Kagawad Abel Abueme.
But what can Abueme’s 15 or so personnel can do as they are ranged against more than 1, 400 illegal fish pens, which sprouted like mushrooms through the toleration of the past Dagupan City administration, whose officials never showed its care to the environment where we live.
It now appears that the task force can only demolish 15 or so illegal fish pens a week because even if these are illegal structures, the due process must have to be observed. It means that the task force must first issue notices of violation and of demolition to the owners of these structures even before they can be touched.
As the task force badly need additional personnel to remove all illegal fish pens, somebody suggested it may do well if Mayor Fernandez uses the budget of seven of 10 Job Order employees requested for each of the 12 city councilors in hiring personnel who can lend a hand in cleaning the city’s rivers from more than a thousand illegal fish pens.
As Mayor Belen underscored to Ms. Salomon, she wants to rejuvenate and bring back the rivers of Dagupan to their old natural state, a condition that could help buoy up the production of more Dagupan bangus for the city to once and for all stop the shipment of alien bangus into Dagupan.
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As I was writing this column, our reporters and photographers were getting ready to cover Senator Imee Marcos, elder sister of President Bongbong Marcos, who was scheduled to visit Pangasinan on November 18, Friday.
The lady senator, fondly called by admirers as “Super Ate (Manang in Ilocano), was expected at the launching of the Nutribun Feeding Program in Bayambang and Dagupan City, and to help oversee the distribution of DSWD assistance worth P18 million to around 6,000 Individuals in Crisis Situation in Alaminos City, San Carlos City, Bayambang, Binalonan, Calasiao and Dagupan.
When she arrived in Dagupan City, Senator Imee joined Mayor Belen Fernandez and other city officials in the ceremonial lighting of Christmas decors in front of the City Museum and at the Quintos Bridge.
Actually, Super Ate has been a frequent visitor of Dagupan. In fact, she was here during one of the parades organized by Mayor Belen during her previous term where the former was still seeking a senate seat. Mayor Belen and Manang Imee became close friends when Belen was chair of the Regional Peace and Order Councilor. It was then Gov. Imee Marcos of Ilocos Norte who succeeded her.
During her Kabataang Barangay days, she was the national KB chairperson and came to Dagupan when the city mayor was still Cipriano Manaois. At that time, the Tondaligan in Bonuan was still called Tondaligan Ferdinand, after then President Marcos. It was recently restored to its former name by Mayor Belen as Tondaligan Ferdinand!
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