Seafood restaurant owner faces 10 years in jail

MANILA -- The owner of a seafood restaurant that allegedly defied a government closure order after it allegedly polluted the Manila Bay may be jailed for 10 years and pay fines up to P10 million, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said on Wednesday.

The Seafood Seaside Market on Roxas Boulevard in Parañaque City was ordered closed in October 2006 for allegedly discharging untreated waste water into the bay.

The DENR found during a check in November that the restaurant had removed the government-installed padlocks in the establishment and the seal on its central water valve.

“During the deliberations on the case, the (Pollution Adjudication Board of the DENR) was exasperated by the respondents’ reprehensible act of removing the padlocks and seals placed without prior approval from the DENR secretary,” the board said in its order.

On Tuesday, the National Anti-Environment Crime Task Force and the Environmental Management Bureau in Metro Manila implemented the board order again, placing locks and resealing the water system.

The PAB said that unless the restaurant owners would explain satisfactorily why they defied the cease-and-desist order, they would face fines of up to P200,000 a day from Nov. 17, when the establishment was found to have removed the locks and seal, until they were replaced on Tuesday.

The DENR’s computation showed that the restaurant would pay a total of P10.6 million for the 53 days it was illegally open.

* Stores particularly these seafood restaurants must not only provide satisfying scrumptious foods but also they should play their role in the environment and surroundings from which their livelihood came from. Each should know how to dispose properly their waste/s so that it could not cause harm to other innocent people and natural resources. It is not necessary that the only thing they have focus in mind is how to gain much, much profit for if they neglect their duties and responsibilities to their environment suddenly their resources would be gone and they would have nothing to support their business. Not only would them be affected but also other people and living things that benefit and depend their lives in that body of water.

Reference: Inquirer online news
First posted 23:46:15 (Mla time) 2007-01-10 Norman Bordadora Inquirer