The first Mariculture Park to be established in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region is projected to produce at least 4,000 metric tons every year starting 2023 from about 200 fish cages in Illana Bay, Parang, Maguindanao.
This morning, I will personally present to the Sangguniang Bayan of Parang headed by Vice Mayor Adnan Biruar the proposed Illana Bay Mariculture Park which had been previously discussed during an inspection trip of the area last week.
A technical presentation will also be made by Jonathan Cabasas of Inca Mariculture Plastics, a private company which I engaged to establish the fish cages in the area.
Once approved by the Sangguniang Bayan, the proposal will be submitted to Parang Mayor Cahar Ibay for the issuance of the needed permits to operate.
The Illana Bay Mariculture Park will be the first working model of the Mindanao Fish Centers which I designed and planned to implement in 26 fishing grounds when I was Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).
The planned Mindanao Fish Centers will have an ice-making and cold storage equipment, a small aqua feed mill and processing and packaging facility.
The concept was proposed to be included in the European Union-funded MINPAD RISE program whose implementation had been marked by delays.
In my last trip to the United States, a group of retired US Navy officers of Filipino ancestry asked me to help them find an investment prospect in Mindanao.
Knowing of the impending fish supply shortage in the country, I proposed to the group, led by Samson Mante of Salinas, California, the Mariculture Project which the group immediately approved.
To ensure the success of the undertaking, I engaged farmer-scientist Rocky French, a veteran of fish cage farming and aqua-feed formulation, to help me.
French is arriving Jan. 23 and will start the production of Aqua Feeds in a small community feed mill in Kidapawan City to support the project.
The Illana Bay Mariculture Park in Parang is expected to be just the first of several fish production centers which I and my group will establish to boost fish production in the country.
I have taken this as a personal advocacy and my way of proving to the critics, skeptics and doubting Thomases that the Philippines could attain fish sufficiency.
With vast bays and coves and a coastline of 36,298 kilometers which is the 5th longest in the world, the Philippines could be a major producer of farmed fish.
There is no need to import. In fact, we could even export if the enabling policies and environment are provided by government.
Since government is more inclined to rely on importation and our policy makers skeptical of these projects, I will lead the private sector in doing this.
Starting with the Bangsamoro Mariculture Project, we will show them the way.
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