Days before President Duterte delivers his second State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 24, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) is faced with a seemingly impossible mission to dismantle illegal structures in Laguna de Bay and restore the ecological balance in the once healthy and economically productive freshwater lake.
Despite the task at hand, LLDA General Manager Jaime C. Medina, former mayor of Pateros town within the Laguna de bay region, remains unfazed and confident that the positive response of various stakeholders may eventually work wonders to reverse the decades of neglect and environmental degradation, and enhance the productivity of the country’s biggest aquaculture hub once more.
Risky business
While the Laguna de Bay remains the biggest aquaculture hub in the country, fish pens and fish cages in the area are a very risky business.
“If you have a P5-million capital, my advice are not to venture in aquaculture,” said Renato Francisco, secretary of the Federation of Fish Pen and Fish Cage Operators of Laguna de Bay. Construction of fish pen alone is costly.
Speaking in Filipino, Francisco said some fish-cage operators have gone bankrupt after investing in its operation.
“One foreigner jumped from a building. Another shot himself in the head because of bankruptcy,” he said.
Laguna de Bay, he said, is no longer as healthy as it used to be. Before fish-pen and fish-cage operators harvest bangus (milkfish) and tilapia four months after dropping the fingerlings. Today it takes six months, and sometimes a year, before they can harvest.
A major risk in fish-pen and fish-cage operation is the threat of disaster.
“One strong typhoon can wipe out our fish pens and fish cages. With one strong typhoon, your P5-million to P6-million capital for the structure alone will be gone,” he said.
One-year moratorium
In February, under the short stint of Regina Paz L. Lopez as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the LLDA board of directors passed Resolution 518, imposing a one-year moratorium on fish-pen and fish-cage operations.
The LLDA was also ordered by Lopez not to renew the business permits and licenses of fish-pen and fish-cage operators.
The moratorium came a month after the DENR, through its National Anti-Environmental Crime Task Force, started to demolish illegal structures outside the designated areas.
Fish-pen and fish-cage operators were also given the option to self-demolish their structure until March 31. The demolition of illegal structures resumed in April, but with very slow progress. By May, before an ambitious self-imposed deadline, Lopez was no longer in charge, after she was rejected as DENR chief by the powerful Commission on Appointments.
Sustainable aquaculture
Under the new DENR secretary, Roy A. Cimatu, however, Lopez’s “Zero Fish Pen and Fish Cage policy” was set aside.
Cimatu’s marching orders to the LLDA, Medina said, was to reduce the number of fish cages and fish pens and strictly observe the 1996 Zoning and Management Plan (Zomap) to ensure sustainable aquaculture in Laguna de Bay.
“We will reduce the areas of operation. When I took over in January 23, there are more than 14,000 hectares of fish cages and fish pens. My commitment is to dismantle 2,000 hectares,” Medina, who spoke in Filipino, told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview.
On June 29, with the support and cooperation of the Federation of Fish Pen and Fish Cage Operators of Laguna de Bay, the LLDA resumed the dismantling operation and cleared 300 hectares of illegal structures.
“In the past several months, we have already dismantled [structures covering] 1,600 hectares. This time, even those with no violation, which means they are operating legally on their own, reduced their area from 50 hectares to 25 hectares. This is a show of goodwill and voluntary support by the federation to the programs of the government,” Medina said.
“Easily, by December, we can reduce the number of fish pens to cover 9,200 hectares and, hopefully, this will help increase bangus and tilapia production in the lake,” he said.
Win-win solution
The federation, which has over 500 members, including corporations, cooperatives and individuals, supports the LLDA chief’s plan and agreed to voluntarily reduce their fish pens and fish cages.
They reiterated their position that stopping the operation of aquaculture in Laguna de Bay will be a disaster, because it will adversely affect the supply and cost price of bangus and tilapia to drastically go up from an average of P150 to P180 a kilo to P250 a kilo.
“Many people will go hungry if the Zero Fish Pen and Fish Cage policy is pushed through,” said Francisco, a fish-cage operator for 33 years.
He added that the group will now police its rank and help the LLDA enforce the 1996 Zomap by reporting erring businessmen who will violate existing rules and regulations on fish-pen and fish-cage operation.
‘Business–not as usual’
Starting next year, Medina said business permits will be rationalized and priority will be given to small fishers, and aquaculture will resume operation.
More areas will be set aside for small fishers who wish to venture in aquaculture with a little help from the government, Medina said.
“President Duterte’s order is to prioritize small fishers, that is why we are constantly holding dialogue with their representatives,” he said.
Under a new policy, Medina said 60 percent, or 5,520 hectares, of the total 9,200 areas set aside for fish-pen and fish-cage operation in the entire Laguna de Bay will be set aside for small fishers, while the remaining 40 percent, or 3,680 hectares, will be granted to corporations and cooperatives.
Medina added that the LLDA is “corporatizing” aquaculture—a marriage of corporate and cooperative.
He said the LLDA will ask the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) to help small fishers form their own cooperative, if needed, and to manage it like a corporation.
“It will be like a cooperative running like a corporation,” he said.
The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), he said, has also agreed to help by providing loans for the fishers start-up capital of up to P50,000. There are 22,000 fishers, according to an initial count made by the LLDA.
Pollution and pollution control
Currently, the LLDA is also intensifying its campaign to address pollution that continues to cause environmental degradation in Laguna de Bay.
With over 100 rivers and streams draining into the lake, the Laguna de Bay is the biggest natural catch basin of water—including waste and untreated wastewater from households and toxic chemicals from industrial and commercial establishments.
According to Medina, the LLDA will intensify the campaign against erring establishments that continue to discharge untreated wastewater into the lake.
He noted that last year, only 12 establishments were issued closure orders.
On June 29 the LLDA issued closure orders to eight establishments. “It should have been 20, but some made an appeal,” he said. Nevertheless, the LLDA issued a total of 20 notice of violations to concerned establishments.
From now on, he said there would be no let up in the campaign against erring establishments until the water discharge meets the environmental standard.
The one-year moratorium on fish-pen and fish-cage operation, he said, is hoped to somehow improve the water quality of the lake’s waters.
“The reason fish from Laguna de Bay is affordable, fish-pen and fish-cage operators do not have to spend on commercial feeds,” he said.
Knife-fish infestation
Fishers, as well as fish-pen and fish-cage operators continue to complain about knife-fish infestation. The knife fish, a carnivorous fish, lays their eggs that sticks to the bamboo poles of fish cages and fishnets. Upon hatching, they easily enter the fish pen and fish cage and feed on bangus and tilapia fingerlings.
According to Francisco, they estimated that knife-fish infestation reduces potential bangus and tilapia harvest by as much as 60 percent.
Knife fish, although edible, is not a very popular fish and sells from P15 to P25 per kilogram. Those who catch knife fish sell them to traders in Malabon, who use it in making fish balls.
Medina said the Department of Agriculture (DA) is also helping address the knife-fish infestation in the lake.
“It is important for these programs against knife fish to continue. The DA pays for every knife fish caught in the lake by the fishers,” he said.
Fish stock replenishment
To boost the income of small fishers who fish within the lake’s open waters, Medina is pinning hope on the DA’s program, called Project Basil, or Balik Sigla sa Ilog at Lawa Project. Part of the project is to release 25 million fingerlings. Laguna de Bay is among the priority.
He said native fish would be released by the DA as part of the program. This includes ayungin, biya and other native fish, he added.
“We are eyeing to register the fishers, too. We want illegal fishing to stop,” he said.
According to Medina, hopefully as the LLDA, with the help of the DA, cushions the impact of knife-fish infestation, the lake’s native fish will recover and soon replenish the lake with enough fish stock to sustain fish production.
Fighting pollution and getting rid of the pesky knife fish, he said, will be a priority under his watch. With the support of stakeholders, there is always hope for Laguna de Bay, he said.