De Venecia suggests winning solution to idle Dagupan seafood process plant
DAGUPAN CITY, Feb. 22 (PNA) — Former Speaker Jose C. de Venecia Jr. has proposed that the idle P100-million Seafood Processing Plant in Barangay Bonuan Binloc here be turned over to the private sector via competitive bidding.
Now a private person, De Venecia admitted he recently asked the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the national director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to let go off the plant and call a competitive bidding for whoever is willing to operate the facility.
The former congressman of the fourth district of Pangasinan said he made this proposal in letters to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, BFAR National Director Asis Perez, Dr. Westly Rosario of the National Fisheries Integrated Technology Development Center, and Director Nestor Domenden of BFAR Region 1 to sound off the need to pass the plant to the private sector via competitive bidding.
He said this is because the national government, even combining with the local government unit (LGU), cannot engage in business, pointing out that even the government is already moving out of business.
It was De Venecia as then congressman of the fourth district of Pangasinan who asked the Korean government to build the processing plant to process locally produced fish for export abroad thereby raising the income of fish farmers.
He said they can implement this suggestion within 15 days as minimum and 30 days maximum in order to save the machinery of the modern seafood processing plant from further corrosion and decay.
Corrosion seeped in since the facility ceased operations on Oct. 7 last year upon the advice of BFAR central office when Mayor Benjamin Lim of Dagupan insinuated on the need of the facility to secure business permit.
BFAR later ultimately found that no permit is needed to operate the plant being a government agency. However, the plant has never been able to resume operations hence.
The plant is now the subject of a tug-off-war between the BFAR and the Dagupan City government that co-own the plant based on the Memorandum of Agreement signed by the two in 2010, along with the donor, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
However, when Lim took over as mayor of Dagupan, he wanted the city to take over the management and operation of the plant from BFAR.
The plant is also the source of continuing conflict between the Dagupan city hall and the city council headed by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez because although the former now wants to take over the facility, the latter prefers that it better remains in BFAR hand, knowing that no city personnel can handle the facility.
“As I’ve been saying repeatedly, they should award the plant to the most competent private sector proponent through competitive public bidding,” said De Venecia.
The former speaker, whose wife Gina is the incumbent congresswoman of Pangasinan’s fourth district, said however that the bidding should be very transparent and must be free from favoritism.
He said the Korean government that bankrolled the plant envisioned the project to help fishermen of Dagupan and Pangasinan increase the value of their products in the export market but were dismayed because of its long inactivity.
“This is the winning solution and the best way that the mayor and vice mayor of Dagupan City can help their constituents,” De Venecia said of his suggestion.
He said if the processing plant continues to be idle, there will be lots of export potentials to be missed.
At the same time, he said that his wife, Rep. De Venecia, is also writing President Benigno Aquino III, Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson and Budget Secretary Butch Abad to seek for funds that will be used in stopping the erosion of the bank of the Cayanga River that may eventually affect the processing plant.
He stressed that there is a need to build a retaining wall to protect the river bank from erosion, which if uncontrolled, may eventually take its toll on the whole facility as well as the projects of the adjacent 24-hectare NIFTDC adjacent the processing plant.
Noting that the plant will deteriorate fast if it is not operating, De Venecia said it is about time that the BFAR and the city government stop studying on who should manage the plant and act fast to save it. (PNA)
LDV/lvm/rma