Friday, July 23, 2004 Dynamite fishing goes unchecked By Fred P. Macaraeg
* New provincial maritime police officer deploys intelligence operatives to identify illegal fishers
DAGUPAN -- Coastal local government units (LGUs) seem helpless in curbing dynamite fishing at the Lingayen Gulf, as the entry of contraband materials in the manufacture of explosives in Pangasinan remains unchecked.
Sources said one of the activities is the continuous smuggling of blasting caps from the mining companies in Mountain Province.
They wondered over what happened to the earlier disclosure the Philippine National Police Maritime Command that it would coordinate with the management of the mining companies.
The sources said the maritime police has not apparently done their job because of the many blasting caps that are still being sold in the province, especially in San Fabian town.
They likewise proposed the control of warehouses of ammonium nitrate in San Jacinto.
Up to now, the sale of ammonium nitrate has not yet been purportedly regulated although it is still not the season by which the fertilizer will be used in the fields.
It was learned that every Friday, transactions are allegedly being made in San Jacinto wherein several sacks of the fertilizer are delivered to two coastal communities in San Fabian, namely, Barangays Alacan and Nibaliw.
The sources said this ammonium nitrate is transformed into explosive powder because there are no plantations or plants by which the people in the two barangays could use the fertilizer.
They said it appears that this is not being attended to because the fertilizer is delivered even only through tricycles.
As this developed, the newly installed provincial officer of the PNP Maritime Command in Pangasinan has vowed to strengthen the agency's intelligence gathering to stop illegal fishing in the Lingayen Gulf.
Chief Insp. Policarpio Abogado, who was police chief of Bulacan prior his assignment here this week, said he has already deployed his intelligence operatives to know those behind illegal fishing, particularly blast fishing.
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