PRAYER, ONLY OPTION LEFT — Do you expect a Merry Christmas? Yes, you must, despite seemingly insurmountable trials.

But how can we say the same thing to the families of five fishermen who went missing more than two weeks ago after fishing off the Panatag Shoal?

They are clinging only to prayers to either find or retrieve their relatives.

They are hoping for miracles to happen.

Barangay Captain Charlito Maniago of Cato, Infanta this province said, “Perhaps only a miracle could make them found alive”.

He said their families are ready to give up and are hurting. Why? For one, they were told Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) had no rescue boats to offer.

“Dasal na lang (Prayers only),” Maniago said. After all, no one from the PCG coordinated with him or any of the families of the missing fishermen about rescue and retrieval operations.

As president of Liga ng Barangay of Infanta, he said he will ask soon for a dialogue with the municipal officials and the PCG to discuss their concerns.

He said their search and rescue team had stopped scouring the place about 100 nautical miles from the shoreline here where seven fishermen went missing after fishing off Panatag Shoal and were on their way home. (The bodies of Christopher Monje and Johnjohn Guarin, were retrieved last Dec. 11 about 90 nautical miles fronting Bolinao town).

Still missing are Pedro  Amor, Joemar Gamboa, Leonardo Mical, Alfredo Bautista and a certain Jerry. They were all onboard fishing boat John Paul believed to have capsized on Dec. 3.
Their families had appealed to President Duterte to help them bring the fishermen back home so I thought I could get an encouraging response from the PCG. I tried but failed to get statements from the PCG.

I dialed their station in Sual and talked to a personnel who simply referred me to dial their command for North Luzon.  So I did and the staff on the other line to direct my query to their main office. It was frustrating.

The question was very simple. Was there a boat or banca PCG sent to search or retrieve the five missing fishermen. That’s answerable by a yes or no.

Unfortunately, I did not get any answer.

Suddenly, I, too, am left with just one option – to pray for the families in the spirit of Christmas.
Please help them see again their loved ones.–Tita Roces

 

A CLOSER LOOK AT FISH PENS — A brief research revealed that fish pens are not all bad provided these are regulated. Look, the Laguna de Bay, the largest fresh water lake in the Philippines, is still teeming with fish pens that were put up by millionaire corporations since the 1970s. And only after more than 40 years did the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (BFAR) order their dismantling.

Why the millionaires were allowed to exploit at least 100-hectare portion of the lake for more than four decades at the expense of marginal fishermen from Laguna and Rizal could be explained by the fact that building fish pens require huge capital investments that poor fisher folk people don’t have.

I also found out that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) was behind all of the fish pens in the mid-80s pens as a fish farm strategy to spur fish production in coastal areas in the Philippines. I was told that till then the fish pen was practically unknown in Dagupan and Pangasinan.

During the first few years of the reign of the fish pens, there was, indeed, milkfish bonanza in coastal areas. But it was just short-lived as the rivers where these pens were built soon stopped flowing, became stagnant and gave rise to pollution.

This spawned the emergence of fish kills in the Caquipotan Channel that recurred time and again and in Dagupan at one time where fish pens used to be teeming.

Greed of men was blamed for the sudden proliferation of fish pens.  Zoning was disregarded. Structures were put up without considering the carrying capacity of the rivers, resulting many times in fish kill.

During the time of FVR, he tasked the PNP and the BFAR to spearhead the dismantling of the fish pens that soon grew into monsters in Pangasinan and Dagupan, in coordination with the Lingayen Gulf Coastal Area Management Commission (LGCAM) headed by the late retired General Valerio Perez, but failed because the odds were simply insurmountable.

I know this because I once helped edit an in- house organ of LGCAMPC based at the Teachers’ Building in Lingayen with the help of then Capt. Mat Casupang, now retired police colonel, including now Assistant CHED Regional Director Geraldine Casipit, Leny Pastor, now municipal assessor of Sual, and Rene Navalta, who later served as DAR Regional Director in Region 2.

We knew that fish pens owners fight to the death if you dismantle their fish pens, which was why FVR had to call in the police in Region 1 to do the dismantling.

In Dagupan City, Mayor Belen told me after lunch at Jacobo’s for officials of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, that there were 700 illegal fish pens in Dagupan all put up by the previous administrations before her that she dismantled since she came became mayor in 2013.

The only remaining pens are those standing on titled properties that became parts of the river. Fernandez said consultation with their owners will be made shortly after the three-day ultimatum given them to prevent any bloodshed and misunderstanding.                    .

We actually saw some of these “titled” fish pens when Mayor Belen brought officials of PRRPC and the media on a tour of the river system last December 20, and we now believe it will take some guts and a lot of political will to do away with the remaining fish pens.

Surely, the city government as well as Mayor Belen and Emma Molina will face numerous cases if they touch any of these illegal fish pens arbitrarily. Mayor Belen said she could also be charged separately for abuse of power, something which may lead to her suspension, if she dismantles the remaining fish pens.

It’s time she calls DENR as well as the PNP and BFAR to help, said her ally, Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, who was beside me during that lunch. – Leonardo Micua

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