THE Coast Guard District Central Visayas (CGDCV) has charged the owner of the large-scale piggery that was caught dumping waste in the waters off Sitio Magtalisay, Barangay Sangat, San Fernando.
The CGDCV filed the complaints against Santiago Tanchan III, president of Multifarms Agro-Industrial Corp., before the provincial prosecutor’s office Thursday morning, March 14.
Tanchan was accused of violating Presidential Decree (PD) 1067, the water code; and PD 979, which provided the revision of PD 600 governing marine pollution.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) 7 also named Tanchan a respondent in the complaint for the violation of Republic Act 10654, or the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998.
The personnel of CGDCV, Bfar 7, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7, Department of Public Works and Highways 7 and the Regional Competitiveness Committee implemented the search warrant on the piggery last Feb. 26.
The Cebu City Regional Trial Court Branch 24 issued the search warrant, after several months of monitoring done by the composite team of the NBI 7, Philippine Coast Guard 7 and Bfar 7.
Authorities learned that Tanchan’s employees disposed of untreated pig wastes to the sea through the company’s 400-meter-long plastic pipes.
The NBI earlier cut the pipes to stop the company from discharging its waste to the sea. (From HBL of SuperBalita Cebu, KAL)