Environment Secretary Regina Lopez plans to talk to fishpen and fishcage operators in Laguna de Bay before the imposition of a moratorium on the issuance and renewal of their permits in January next year.
Environment undersecretary Arturo Valdez said the dialog between Lopez and the fishpen and fishcage operators aimed to reassure the government’s commitment to providing small fisherfolk priority access to the 90,000-hectare lake.
Valdez heads the National Anti-Environmental Crime Task Force that recently conducted demolition operations on a 13-hectare illegal fishpen in Laguna Lake falling within the jurisdiction of Muntinlupa City.
“The thrust there is to send the message that the DENR, under Secretary Lopez, will rationalize the lake and the bias will be for the fisherfolk to have access to their traditional fishing ground,” Valdez said.
“Secretary Lopez has made it very clear that the fisherfolk should enjoy the lake,” he said.
He said the dialog was in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to dismantle vast tracts of corporate and private fishpens and fishcages so that small-time fisherfolk would have access to their traditional fishing ground.
The lake’s current carrying capacity allows up to only 9,000 hectares for aquaculture, but fishpens and cages were occupying 12,375.18 hectares of the surface water, showing a total of 3,375 hectares of excess area for demolition.
Valdez said the actual area could be bigger. “I would say it is more than that,” Valdez said.
He said that the demolition “was to send a strong message” to the operators of illegal structures to self-dismantle before they enforced the president’s order to dismantle illegal aqua facilities by the second week of December.
“We will give them all the chance to harvest their stock,” he said.
Data from the Laguna Lake Development Authority showed there were a total of 1,018 registered or legitimate fish pen and cage operators in Laguna Lake, covering a total of 9,519 hectares. Of this number, 713 were fishcage operators, while 305 were fishpen operators.
LLDA said there were 2,261 unregistered operators occupying 2,856 hectares.
