DON SALVADOR BENEDICTO -- An expert’s findings from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) are being sought to determine the life cycle of freshwater eels.

Mayor Marxlen De La Cruz said the freshwater eels are growing abundantly in this town.

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But the young mayor cited that such abundance could be in a depleting state when the people already catch the smaller eels and sold this to buyers, including a Chinese, from P250 to P400 a kilo.

“I could not even have it served to my guests every time we have an occasion,” the mayor said.

He said he had been hearing that most of the buyers are elderly people who believe that the eel (locally known as sili) is aphrodisiac and good at improving erectile dysfunction.

“What I fear about now is we still don’t know if these eels are still abundant or already an endangered ones,” he said.

If there’s a need to preserve and propagate them or culture in a way that it will result to farming eels in town, maybe through an ordinance that will regulate its catch and perhaps, giving exact time for its harvest.

The mayor who served his 18 Korean guests, including local visitors, with deep fried “sili” on Saturday for lunch, surprised them with its delectable taste, whose meat was comparable to of pork and some would say it’s of a chicken.

The visiting Korean nationals were members and officers of the Lions Club of Ichon in South Korea who witnessed the unveiling of a Statue of Lion in Barangay Igmayaan of the said town as part of the 41st charter anniversary of the Bacolod City Host Lions Club.

“It’s another delicacy that Don Salvador Benedicto is taking pride,” De La Cruz said. (GMD)