TACLOBAN CITY — It was half past 2 p.m. and after almost a half day of fishing, Lito Esparagoza and three other fishermen finally returned to their homes at sitio Payapay, at the boundary of Barangays 89 and 90, two coastal villages located just half an hour away from the central hub of Tacloban City.
As their 20-footer banca was sailing to the shoreline, a group of kids ran to meet them. Meeting oncoming fishing boats and helping haul the boat to shore meant getting a share of the catch.
But it was not a good day for Esparagoza and his fellow fishermen. They caught only a half-filled container of Lawayan, or common pony fish, that are often found in mangrove estuaries and brackish water.
That catch fetched them only P1,000 and there was only little left for the children.
Fishermen had been complaining of a decline in their fish catch these past few months.
Esparagoza and other fisherfolk in the village claimed that they were catching fewer fish after Typhoon Yolanda. It wasn’t because of the destruction of the fishing grounds but a simple case of supply and demand.
They said NGOs gave free fishing boats and gear to residents of their barangay, as their assistance for Yolanda victims.
Marina Duran, 48, said that before Yolanda, there were 20 fishing boats registered in their village.
Now, more than 100 residents there owned fishing boats.
“Kahit yung hindi mangingisda noon, binigyan nila nang fishing boat. Ayan tuloy, humina yung huli namin,” Duran added.
Before the typhoon, Esparagoza and other fishermen would catch eight to nine kilograms of fish per day.
Now, they only bring home around three-fourths of their usual catch.
This, despite the vow of the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources to replenish declining fish stocks in Eastern Visayas a year after Typhoon Yolanda.
Earlier, BFAR 8 Director Juan Albaladejo was quoted in a report that he was “optimistic” that Eastern Visayas’ fish catches will reach 188,000 metric tons three years after Yolanda.
A year after the typhoon hit Eastern Visayas, fish catches in the region could only muster 137,518 metric tons.
BFAR undersecretary for fisheries, now agency secretary, Asis Perez was even quoted in the agency’s website that they’ve deployed 30,000 units of newly-built and repaired boats and materials to affected fishermen in Eastern, Western, Central Visayas and Palawan since after the typhoon.
The decline in the fish catch has forced some fishermen like Esparagoza to turn to other means to earn money like driving a “padyak” or passenger trike.
Some harvest Alimasag or blue crabs in their village but the catches were also not enough, Esparagoza added.
In their 2015 Fisheries Situationer, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the production of blue crab nationwide declined by 5.33 percent after Typhoon Yolanda.
But in 2015, it saw an increase in blue crab production by 5.47 percent especially during the first quarter of the year.
Three years after the typhoon, the city government of Tacloban relocated affected fisherfolk in Barangay Tagpuro, 15 kilometers away from Barangays 89 and 90.
Fisherfolk were prioritized as the city’s coastal villages are being cleared to make way for the construction of a 29-kilometer dike that will traverse Tacloban, Palo and Tanauan.
Most fisherfolk immediately availed of the City’s relocation offer, even as some feared that they might no longer be able to return to their old fishing grounds.
Losanto Castillo, president of the Tacloban Fisherfolks Urban, and chair of the City Fisheries Aquatic Resources Management Council, is one of those who insist on staying put.
Castillo said while he appreciates the City’s efforts to relocate them to a safer place, he is concerned that some of them might not be able to go back fishing since the proposed relocation site is far from the coast.
Castillo and members of TFUA are currently doing business at the Kankabato Bay in Barangay 88, where they have three fish cages with Lapu-Lapu or grouper and bangus or milkfish.
He said he has apprehensions in moving away from their usual fishing grounds because of some features of the relocation site, particularly the lack of waste disposal facilities.
Castillo said that he and his members would have wanted to avail of the relocation but the City reportedly didn’t segregate the relocation site’s residents.
He appealed that the fisherfolk would be placed in a separate area away from the other residents. “They lump us together with the carpenters, painters and people of other trades,” he said. As a result, the fishermen are no longer interested to fish, as evidenced by their dwindling number in the association.
Even though the relocation site is adjacent to the sea, Castillo disclosed that the lack of septage facilities in the site could cause waste contamination in the water, causing another problem for the fisherfolk living there.
Castillo appealed to the City to consider their plight.
“Nasanay na kami nya mag-evacuate kapag may bagyo. Kung may bagyo 12 times a year, 12 times a year rin kami mag-evacuate. Pero kung ma-relocate kami malayo sa dagat, para na rin nasalanta kami ng bagyo araw araw, kasi araw-araw kaming gutom,” Castillo added. (“We are used to evacuating whenever a storm comes, which is 12 times a year. But those who choose to relocate far from the sea would be going through a storm every day because they get hungry every day.”) Alex Pal/Dumaguete MetroPost; Justin Vestil/Sun Star Cebu; Shiela Gelera/Visayan Daily Star; Dahlia Orit/Southern Leyte Times; Joey Vincent Motel/West Leyte Weekly Express, for a workshop on environment reporting “Taking Stock of our Natural Capital” by the Philippine Press Institute in partnership with Nickel Asia Corp. and Rio Tuba Mining Corp.)
