Experts to check preparation of Tacloban fish port project
TACLOBAN CITY – An 11-member team from the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) will visit the city this week to assess the preparation in the construction of a P300 million fish port in this city.
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Director Juan Albaladejo said that the group is composed of experts that will see various aspects of the projects and come up with a feasibility study.
As this developed, the official has called on the city government to formally identify the site where the fish port will rise.
“The contentious issue here is where will the city government put the fishery port because right now we have no idea,” Albaladejo said.
The fisheries bureau earlier identified the city’s Old Bus Terminal and Barangay 37 as the ideal site of the proposed fish port. Some area will be reclaimed for the construction of platform to serve big fishing boats.
Initially, the port will require two to three hectares. More lots will be used in building plants for its full development,” Albaladejo added.
The team will meet with the local government unit on Monday (November 16) and the BFAR official expects that the local government can already name the specific site.
“It’s 100% that the project is for Tacloban. It is now up for the city government where they will locate the project. We can start the planning without that. First is we have to identify the site, make a plan and proceed with the construction,” he said.
The Department of Agriculture through PFDA is pushing to kick-off the P300 million project before the end of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term mid 2010.
The proposed facility will be patterned after the fishing port in General Santos – it has piers, refrigeration facilities, ice plants and processing plants-to enable fishers to unload their catch, process them and export their products to whatever markets because of their nearness to airports.
If the project will be pushed through, it will attract canning operations, fish mill plants and many investors in the tuna industry and will create more jobs. He said that it will also boom the existing mariculture (marine agriculture) zones in the region because of the steady market.
He said that the project will give clear direction to the flourishing tuna industry in Eastern Samar and Northern Samar seas which recently has drawn catchers feeding the requirement of General Santos City tuna processing plant.
“The building of fish port is timely because of the dwindling tuna population in General Santos, which is known to be the country’s tuna capital. Some of the GenSan commercial fishers have been going to Eastern Samar and they ship it out to their place,” Albaladejo explained.
The official said that the city is the ideal place to build the new fish port not only that Tacloban is the capital of Eastern Visayas but also the geographic location facing the Pacific Ocean and their proximity to existing airport.
The region has been identified as part of the country’s super highway for tuna being located in the Eastern seaboard hosting the untapped exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Pacific Ocean .
The Pacific Sea is home to migratory species like bluefin, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna, which usually go there during the colder months of the year’s second semester. (SARWELL Q. MENIANO)
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