Dagupan City pushes bid to become bangus capital of the world

DAGUPAN CITY – Soon, bangus (milkfish), the country’s national fish and also this city’s famous product, will be known as the fish of the masses not only in the Philippines but also in Asia.

House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., who is also Pangasinan’s fourth district congressman that covers this city, said with 79 milion bangus-eating Filipinos in the Philippines plus another seven milion bangus-eating Filipinos now working or residing abroad, there are already 86 million Filipino Bangus-eaters.

"Our strategy now is how to make this city the bangus capital of the world," De Venecia said when he came here for the bangus festival Tuesday night.

He added that even Taiwanese, Chinese and Vietnamese eat bangus so there’s a big potential of bangus production in Pangasinan and in other bangus-producing provinces in the country and market it internationally.

What we need now is modern technology, De Venecia said, adding that he and Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor have set aside from their budgets P10 milion each for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources center in Bonuan Binloc hwere which is currently undertaking a milkfish breeding program. With the program, about 20 million bangus fry will produced this year, a big jump from 2.4 million last year because of modern technology.

De Venecia said "even the president of Palau and the president of the Solomon Islands and the governor of Guam in Pacific sought his help regarding the bangus technology to produce this fish in the Central Pacific because although they are surrounded by fish in the Pacific yet they are importing fish from America and Thailand."

He praised the city government of Dagupan for coming up with a bangus festival through the initiative of Mayor Benjamin Lim that attempts to make its famous product, the Bonuan bangus gain prominence not only locally but also internationally for its marketing.

He added that the fishponds in Pangasinan and Dagupan Ciy are about 150 to 200 years. Old folks used to call the bangus betel, a Pangasinan word that connotes cold.

We are going to start a triangle in Pangasinan, Xiamen in South Cihna, Kaohshiung in Taiwan and this axis will be the main source of bangus production not only in Southeast Asia but also in the world, De Venecia added.

Meanwhile, a memorandum of agreement was signed Tuesday night among the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, SEAFDEC, Philippine Fisheries Development Authority and the city government for the conduct of feasibility study for the establishment of a multi-million pesos worth of bangus processing plant here.