Task force seizes truck of blasted fish in Liloan

Blasted fish worth an estimated P110,000 were confiscated by Cebu province’s Anti-Illegal Fishing Task Force yesterday.

About 11 a.m., members of the task force intercepted a four-wheel Elf truck loaded with boxes of blasted fishes in barangay Cotcot, Liloan town, northeastern Cebu.

A total of 44 boxes of a variety of toloy and tamban (Sardinella albella) fish were confiscated.

The driver and the hauler who refused to give their names said they did not know that the fish were blasted.

They were supposed to deliver the fish to the Pasil Fish Market where a certain buyer named Linda Abella was waiting.

Elvie Flores, a fish examiner and officer in charge for Fisheries Resource Management of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, concluded that the fish were blasted.

She showed one fish from a box and said all were blasted since their internal organs were already dissipated.

Jeoffrey Merencillo of the task force said they received a call at 8 a.m. from a tipster that a truck loaded with blasted fishes was to be transported to Pasil Fish Market.

Merencillo said the tipster only gave them the description of the truck.

The truck was from a town in the north.

The truck was then escorted and brought in by military personnel from the 78th Infantry Battalion to the Capitol.

Abella, the identified buyer, told the task force that she was not aware that the fishes were blasted.

“They just bought these from Liloan and they have a place in Pasil,” Merencillo said, referring to the buyers.

Merencillo told reporters that the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) will assess what charges will the buyers will face.

The fish, safe for consumption, will be given to Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) or the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7).