Dagupan fish pens have to go this month

DAGUPAN CITY , Philippines   â€“ With or without weather disturbances, all fish pens in this city’s rivers have to go by the end of this month.

Mayor Belen Fernandez told reporters yesterday that every week, the Task Force Bantay Ilog she created to dismantle fish pens meets weekly to assess the situation, and as of the latest report, more than 100 fish pens remain.

“Like what I have said, the cut-off is the end of August,” she said.

Some structures were earlier dismantled after their bangus stocks were harvested, but other fish pen owners put in new stocks, reneging on their promise to comply with the mayor’s order.

The task force is bent on meeting Fernandez’s deadline to demolish the remaining fish pens blamed for polluting the rivers and impeding water flow.

The fish pens were discovered last March despite a moratorium imposed against illegal structures as early as 2011. 

Initially, there were 205 fish pens built in rivers in the barangays of Calmay, Carael, Lucao, Tapuac, Poblacion Oeste, Salapingao, Lomboy, Pugaro, and Sitio Tococ.