Provincial Administrator Rafael Baraan said the fishponds were established long before the city government took over the management of the HINP in 2004 through Executive Order 436.
He said, “It is admitted that the (structures) were there before Alaminos took over, so Alaminos has nothing to do with allowing structures to be constructed in Hundred Islands.”
“ (But) we wanted to dig deeper into problems such as how the structures came about, and why such activities were allowed in an area supposedly protected under the national integrated protected areas law,” he said during a press conference on Thursday.
Mayor Hernani Braganza said the city government could not act on the structures because they are covered by titles and are therefore private properties. But they still had to conform with the environment laws of the city for them to be granted permits to operate, he said.
Provincial officials last week held a press conference on November 4 announcing that new structures have proliferated inside the Hundred Islands, but later backtracked and said the structures were actually the 46-hectare fishpond of the Bolo Development Cooperative (Bolodeco).
Several agencies are responsible for the establishment of fishery structures inside the park. It was the Philippine Tourism Authority that granted a contract of lease to the Bolodeco on November 3, 1980, for 25 years and renewable for another 25 years.
The Department of Agrarian Reform granted the Bolodeco a certificate of land ownership in 1993. The PTA asked the DAR adjudication board to nullify the CLOA in 1999.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources also issued fishpond lease agreement to private persons covering 45 hectares since 1973, while 70 hectares are operated without any tenurial instrument issued by the government, he said.
“How come over a very long period these structures are still there? Why are they being operated as fishpond concessions, and why they look more improved than before?” Baraan said.
He said the provincial government is going to ask the Department of Agrarian Reform’s adjudication board (DARAB) why after more than 10 years, it has not decided yet on the petition to nullify the CLOA.
It will also inquire from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources why it allowed fishpond operation in the park which is a protected area.
In another press conference, Braganza said he welcomed the investigation of the problem which “has been here even when I was still a college student.”
“So nagtataka ako why biglang pumutok ang’ hundred islands vandalized’, as if it only happened during my watch as mayor,” he said.
A press release of the provincial government quoted an official of Bolodeco saying four Braganzas own fishponds at the islands. It also quoted an Inquirer story dated September 9, 000 that mentioned two Braganzas as fishpond operators.
“Not true. My relatives are not bad people. They own fishponds but these are located at the mainland, not at the HINP, and they have been operating those fishponds for decades already,” he pointed out.
He claimed that even a member of the provincial government’s Task Force Kalikasan, retired police office Tommy Cabigas, owns a fishpond in the city, but outside of the islands.
Braganza also showed an ortho-photo map of Alaminos showing the positions of the private fishponds. “I know the map of Alaminos by heart. I know where the problems are, including balding mountains.”
“There is no way you can see the fishponds when you go to the Hundred Islands, so yong sasabihin nila na mabaho ang Hundred Islands, imposible yon,” he said
A media tour at the Bolodeco site showed that there were no activities there, and a dike has been breached where water freely flows in and out of the pond.
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