Livelihood for indigents along Iloilo River mulled
The Iloilo City Government is planning to provide a livelihood program for residents who own illegal fish pens along the Iloilo River.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog had earlier ordered that all illegal structures, especially fish pens in the middle of the Iloilo River and along Carpenters Bridge be removed.
Mabilog said these structures must be uprooted within the month.
He has already instructed the City Agriculture Office and the City Legal Office to coordinate strictly in imposing the orders.
Still, the mayor said he cannot let the owners of these fishpens lose their main source of income without providing alternatives.
He said the city government should find them proper livelihood to sustain their needs to prevent them from again building illegal structures in the river.
Mabilog said he has ordered the City Public Employment and Services Office to look for a sustainable livelihood alternative for the owners of the illegal fish structures.
He said they can be given a seed capital to formally start a fishing business in the Iloilo City Fish Port. They can also consider starting a cooperative, he said.
The mayor said anything should be considered in helping these people so that they will never go back building illegal structures in the middle of the river.
Numerous people living along the Iloilo River are making a living catching fish by constructing fishpens made of bamboo and other materials right in the middle of Iloilo River.
Some of the illegal structures were already taken out during the term of former Mayor Jerry Treñas but several fishpens have started sprouting back in the past months. PNA
