INFANTA—The boiling dispute between China and the Philippines over waters west of the Philippines is frighteningly real for fishermen from this town.

“We felt everything then, fear, nervousness, we didn’t know what they were thinking and we were afraid they might harm us one by one,” narrates Ramoncito Damus, 28, a fisherman from Barangay Cato here, in the dialect, referring to the January 27 incident wherein a group of local fishermen were fired upon with water canon by a Chinese ship at the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

Damus, a boat captain whose vessel was in between two other boats that were fired upon, said it was the first time he experienced such a threat and has been traumatized by the event, but continues to go out to sea for lack of an alternative livelihood.

“I hope President Aquino would help us provide alternative livelihood so we would not anymore endanger our lives fishing in the disputed Scarborough Shoal,” he added.

The Philippine government has told fishermen to stop going in that area after the January 27 incident, but Damus said, “what about us, we have no other livelihood here”.

Damus’ boat was about a half a mile away from another boat that was directly hit by the water canon after men on the Chinese ship shooed them away with hand signals, which he was able to record on his cellular phone.

When Damus arrived in Barangay Cato on Feb. 2, he said he was surprised that newsmen were around and wanted to interview him about the incident which none of the fishermen reported.

The other fishermen then were from Infanta, Masinloc, Sta. Cruz, and Subic, among others.

“They (Chinese) are insisting they own the area but since I was born, my family had been fishing in the area. We, fishermen, should be spared from the dispute like what they did to our colleagues and shooed us away because we are only fishing,” Damus said in Filipino.

The local government, he added, has neither offered any help.

“We are scared,” said Damus but, “We would just continue fishing until help from government comes in.”— Tita Roces

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