P’sinan execs trade barbs on fishponds

ALAMINOS CITY – This city’s top executive here urged Gov. Amado Espino Jr. and first district Rep. Jesus Celeste to issue a public apology for their “false statements” that the world-famous Hundred Islands is becoming polluted due to proliferation of fishponds.

“It appears that Gov. Espino was fed with wrong information in this issue. The issue they want to throw against me boomeranged on them,” Mayor Hernani Braganza said in a statement.

But Celeste said it should be Braganza who should apologize to the people of Alaminos “for not doing anything for six years” on the controversial issue of fishponds operated by the Bolo Development Corp. (Bolodeco) in the Hundred Islands.

Braganza, however, said Celeste, a brother of a mayoral candidate whom the mayor said he had defeated, lied “by saying that aside from the fishponds of Bolodeco, there are other fishponds owned by nine private persons, mostly surnamed Braganza, allegedly operating inside the Hundred Islands National Park.”

“This is a big lie. The more they were hoodwinked,” he said in Filipino.

He said the other fishponds identified by Celeste are in the “mainland” of Alaminos, and not within the national park.

“These have been there long time ago. (They are) legal and (they have) a title,” he added.

Braganza insisted that Bolodeco’s fishponds have no longer been operating for many years, and are thus not polluting the waters.

But Celeste said, “That’s what he says. He is like a child. There are portions that are still operational.”

What Braganza showed to newsmen in an ocular inspection Tuesday, according to Celeste, was only the part he wanted to show, “not the real issue at hand.”

“He wants to make us appear dumb. He knows how to project himself as hero in the media,” the congressman said.

Braganza said, “I’m saddened that because of their irresponsible statements or black propaganda, not only is the tourism industry in the city being destroyed but even in the entire province of Pangasinan.”

Braganza showed to newsmen a copy of a newspaper published recently with the banner “Hundred Islands Vandalized.”

But the mayor said it should be “Hundred Islands vandalized 20 years ago” to not make it appear that this happened under his term.

Celeste said Braganza should even thank him and Espino for the exposé “because this will help the tourism industry because we are putting to order what is being destroyed here.”
Celeste, a member of the House committee on natural resources and tourism, said he is pushing for a congressional inquiry into the matter and would deliver a privilege speech on it.

He added he is also going to write a letter to the Philippine Tourism Authority and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources about it.

Braganza reacted to the issue after the provincial government, through Task Force Kalikasan which Espino formed to dismantle fish structures that pollute and impede water flow in rivers and coastal waters, claimed that illegal fishponds have mushroomed in the eastern part of the Hundred Islands, a number of them allegedly built only recently.

Braganza said the fishpond issue is still pending before the Department of Agrarian Reform’s Adjudication Board, and that as mayor, he could not do something about it “because technically, it’s a private property.”

He added that the issue has been there since he was still a college student.

Braganza recalled that when he served as agrarian reform secretary, the issue was not calendared for hearing and even if it were, he would inhibit himself from taking part in it.

Last Tuesday, Braganza toured newsmen in a portion of the questioned fishponds, showing that the dikes were not made of corals, as Task Force Kalikasan reported, but of limestone and roots of mangroves.

He also pointed to breached portions of the dikes, making it impossible to grow fish “unless the operator wants to lose money.”

Tommy Cabigas, deputy chief of Task Force Kalikasan, earlier said their aerial surveillance showed precious corals being formed into fishpond dikes interconnecting the islands in the national park’s southern sealane.

Cabigas said the fishpond dikes occupied large portions of the national park, while the corals, which take a hundred years to replenish, were already depleted.

He added that the discoloration of the waters is a clear signal that the area is already polluted.

In a TV interview, Espino said he has been getting reports that the area has been emitting foul smell posing threat to people‘s health and marine resources.

Espino said the province has no authority to act on the matter as the direct care, management and control of the fish sanctuaries is under the Alaminos City government by virtue of Executive Order 436 issued by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005.