Government set to dismantle fishpens in Laguna Bay

Government authorities are set to dismantle fish pens in the Laguna Lake starting tomorrow, as Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza pushed for the immediate “rescue” of the body of water, which is feared to become biologically dead in five years due to massive pollution.

Atienza ordered the Laguna Lake Development Authority, under the helm of general manager Edgardo Manda, to lead the demolition of the fish pens at the Laguna Lake, which is the largest lake in the country and the second largest inland freshwater lake in Southeast Asia after Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia.

“Demolish the fishpens or allow the lake to perish. These are the only choices left to us to save Laguna de Bay,” Atienza said. “Our choice is clear: we must save the lake. The fishpens must go.”

Atienza hinted that fishpens already occupy more than 50 percent of the 90,000-hectare water body. He said the fishpens “are already choking the lake to death.”

“They obstruct the flow of water and block the passageways of small fishermen. Worse, the chemical content of the feeds being fed to the fishes raised there has considerably polluted its waters,” Atienza also said.

According to Manda, the dismantling of the fishpens will be carried out beginning tomorrow by a multi-agency task force that include personnel from the LLDA, DENR, Department of Public Works and Highways, and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Committee.

Manda said members of the Philippine National Police will provide security for the task force.

“The LLDA should take the lead in demolishing the fishpens (because) the agency played a key role in the proliferation of fishpens in Laguna Lake. And so, as such, the LLDA should also assume the principal role in the clean up,” Atienza said.

The DENR chief said that clearing Laguna Lake of fishpens is one of the concrete steps in reforming the functions and operations of the LLDA.

He said that the agency does not have a regular budget allocation and that financial support for its operations, like meeting its payroll, are apparently dependent on payments made by lake users and fines derived from violators.

“Such an arrangement is very ironic because the viability of the lake’s guardian depends on the volume of activities it can generate and these activities could be harmful to the body of water which the agency is supposed to protect,” Atienza said.

Atienza clarified that the implementation of reforms in the LLDA, including the dismantling of the fishpens and fish cages as among the concrete steps to achieve improvements in the functions and operations of the LLDA, is in concurrence with Manda’s duties and responsibilities as general manager.