04/26/2008 [ tribune.net.ph ]
The Laguna Lake Development Authority yesterday said there will be no let up in its moves to dismantle some 12,000 hectares fish pen inside the heavily polluted Laguna de Bay after its undertaking of clearing operations the other day with the cooperation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
In a phone interview, LLDA general manager Edgardo Manda said the 900-square kilometer lake is being controlled by corporate entities and fish pen operators which, over the years, have been strongly opposed to the government’s plan to remove their source of livelihood.
“They (fish pen operators) even hire and train individuals making them a virtual private armies to harass and stop government workers who visits and serves them eviction notices,” he said.
Manda, though, said he is satisfied over the start of the demolition of fish pen the other day after government forces faced no violent resistance from fish pen operators.
“The clearing operations would proceed without let up,” he said, adding that his conviction earned the ire of retired and active military generals, retired and active politicians, who are owners of fish pens in the bay.
He identified one of the fish pen operators as former military Brig. Gen. Marino Filart.
“We have talked to them and told them that we have to remove their fish pen. The situation is critical to the fact that our President was shocked over the present state of our lake and so she gave an instruction for us to act and save the lake as soon as possible, before its already too late,” Manda said.
He said he had received numerous death threats over his conviction but he remained unperturbed.
“Fish pen operators claim that they supply 30 percent of fishes in Metro Manila and to remove them fish prices would soar high but that’s not true. The face is that they are causing the deaths of our fishes in the bay. In the past, the lake producers at least 27 species of fish now its downed to mere seven specie, even tulya (a shellfish) had already disappeared from the lake,” he said.
Manda explained fish pens clogged waterways and their chemical feeds, or pellets being fed to their fishes (bangus and tilapia) leave over a large amounts of residues which over the years cause pollution in the lakebed, producing heavy sedimentation which subsequently blocks sunlight which in effect kills plankton, the food source of fishes.
In connection with this, some 1,000 cyclists and hobbyists will hit the 280-km bike caravan trail around the Laguna Lake today, April 26, in an environment awareness campaign to save the country’s largest living lake.
The cyclists will ride through 30 towns around the Laguna Lake and along the way hope to convince residents to join efforts to save the lake through reforestation, vigilance against encroachment and cleaning up of pollution.
The Laguna Lake bike caravan will start at the Market! Market! mall in Taguig City this morning and will end at the Manila East in Taytay, Rizal tomorrow afternoon.
Manda said the bike caravan aims to rally communities around the lake against further degradation.
He said the lake is the only alternative source of potable water for future generations, and is an irrigation basin for rice farms in the Laguna de Bay region.
“We must be in the forefront of saving Planet Earth. Environmental consciousness must be in our system,” Manda said.
Sherwin C. Olaes
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