The Bantay Dagat team of Argao, Cebu has apprehended a fishing boat reportedly owned by Siaton, Negros Oriental town mayor Alberto Ator Thursday night.
A report from Sun Star Cebu said the captain and 19 crew members of the Ara II were caught allegedly fishing in the restricted waters off Barangay Bulasa.
Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Argao Police Station’s PO2 Von Tecson said in a phone interview that Mayor Alberto Ator of Siaton, Negros Oriental, owns the boat.
This was, however, denied by Mayor Ator, who said he had already sold the boat to his brother, Filipio, three years ago, the report continued.
It’s possible, the mayor said, that the boat captain was not informed of the boat’s ownership because the vessel’s papers do not yet state Filipio’s name.
But Mayor Ator, in a phone interview by Sun Star Cebu, said he was unaware of the vessel’s activity and was only told it had been drydocked.
Gilbert Vildosola, a cousin of Mayor Ator who was identified as the boat’s captain, reportedly told police investigators they were sailing toward Siaton after they refueled in Naga, Cebu.
But when they were off Barangay Bulasa, they saw schools of “bilong-bilong” or diamond fish and were tempted to throw their nets in.
The Bantay Dagat team that boarded the fishing boat also found out the crew used fine-meshed nets, another violation of the law, the report said. The vessel, which weighs 33.10 tons, is not allowed to enter the municipal seawaters.
Tecson said the fishermen were charged with violating Section 90 of the Republic Act 8550, or the 1998 Fisheries Code of the Philippines, which prohibits “fishing in municipal waters and in all bays as well as other fishery management
areas using active fishing gear.”
Negros Oriental Provincial Administrator Arnel Francisco told the DumagueteMetroPost that the Ara Fishing Corporation is also facing similar charges before the Municipal Trial Court in Amlan, Negros Oriental.
An active fishing gear is “a fishing device characterized by gear movement, and/or the pursuit of the target species by towing, lifting, and pushing the gears, surrounding, covering, dredging, pumping and scaring the target species to impoundments; such as, but not limited to, trawl, purse seines, Danish seines, bag nets, paaling, drift gill net and tuna longline.”
If convicted, the crew could face a maximum jail term of six years and a penalty of P20,000.