BUT NOT fed to the sharks – as yet – is the collective sentiment of the fisherfolk of the coastal twin towns of Macabebe and Masantol.
That, arising from the failure of the provincial government to form – with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Philippine National Police – the anti-illegal fishing task force called “Bantay Dagat” meant to protect the fishing grounds along the coastline of the province of Pampanga.
Laments Masantol Vice Mayor Marcelo “Bajun” Lacap Jr.: “Ask the governor and he would say the (SP) sangguniang panlalawigan did not approve any budget for the task force. Ask the SP and they would say they approved the whole budget the governor asked for amounting to over a billion pesos.”
For the record, people at Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao’s office say, the SP had passed a resolution urging Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio to create the task force and vowed to allocate the necessary funding for its equipment and operations.
Still, no Bantay Dagat here, making Pampanga the only province without one, according to Lacap.
The apparent insincerity of the Capitol to act on their problem, Lacap says, has fomented hopelessness among the fisherfolk. Something already verging on desperation, we were told.
Pampanga fishermen are routinely apprehended by Bataan’s Bantay Dagat for straying into the waters of that province. Only recently, the vice mayor said, six fishermen from Barangay San Esteban ni Macabebe were nabbed in waters off Orani in Bataan.
“We are helpless as we did not have our own Bantay Dagat,” Lacap rued.
On the other hand, Bataan fisherfolk encroach at will into Pampanga’s fishing grounds with no local Bantay Dagat to apprehend them.
In the absence of clear-cut boundaries between the territorial waters of Bataan and Pampanga, as well as Bulacan, it is the Bantay Dagat that serves as the arbiters in times of conflict, and protectors of the fishermen’s interest within their respective areas of jurisdiction.
In a session at the sangguniang panlalawigan, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority admitted that the boundaries of municipal fishing towns have yet to be determined, “no visible markings or buoys could actually place the exact location of boundaries between towns and even provinces.”
Lacap said this absence of fixed boundaries has constrained the fisherfolk to resort to “traditional” ways of determining coordinates, that is, to move about where they have always fished. Hence, the necessity of Bantay Dagat.
The lopsided equation disfavoring the Pampanga manasan assumes a much larger proportion given that their Bataan counterparts use more sophisticated fishing equipment, “fine, closely woven nets to catch even tiny fishes as dilis and alamang to sustain their OTOP (one-town-one-product) enterprises of bagoong and fish flakes.”
“Masyado ta nang mengapaburen (We have been neglected too much, for too long),” Lacap said.
Whatever happened to Panlilio’s campaign pledge on a cardboard atop his kariton – “Dala ta mu Kapitolyo ing daing ding pakakalulu (We will bring to the Capitol the anguish of the poor)”?
Incidentally, other than “anguish,” the Kapampangan “daing” also means “dried fish.”
There, Vice Mayor Lacap, the Capitol fed your daing to the Bataan sharks.
That, arising from the failure of the provincial government to form – with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Philippine National Police – the anti-illegal fishing task force called “Bantay Dagat” meant to protect the fishing grounds along the coastline of the province of Pampanga.
Laments Masantol Vice Mayor Marcelo “Bajun” Lacap Jr.: “Ask the governor and he would say the (SP) sangguniang panlalawigan did not approve any budget for the task force. Ask the SP and they would say they approved the whole budget the governor asked for amounting to over a billion pesos.”
For the record, people at Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao’s office say, the SP had passed a resolution urging Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio to create the task force and vowed to allocate the necessary funding for its equipment and operations.
Still, no Bantay Dagat here, making Pampanga the only province without one, according to Lacap.
The apparent insincerity of the Capitol to act on their problem, Lacap says, has fomented hopelessness among the fisherfolk. Something already verging on desperation, we were told.
Pampanga fishermen are routinely apprehended by Bataan’s Bantay Dagat for straying into the waters of that province. Only recently, the vice mayor said, six fishermen from Barangay San Esteban ni Macabebe were nabbed in waters off Orani in Bataan.
“We are helpless as we did not have our own Bantay Dagat,” Lacap rued.
On the other hand, Bataan fisherfolk encroach at will into Pampanga’s fishing grounds with no local Bantay Dagat to apprehend them.
In the absence of clear-cut boundaries between the territorial waters of Bataan and Pampanga, as well as Bulacan, it is the Bantay Dagat that serves as the arbiters in times of conflict, and protectors of the fishermen’s interest within their respective areas of jurisdiction.
In a session at the sangguniang panlalawigan, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority admitted that the boundaries of municipal fishing towns have yet to be determined, “no visible markings or buoys could actually place the exact location of boundaries between towns and even provinces.”
Lacap said this absence of fixed boundaries has constrained the fisherfolk to resort to “traditional” ways of determining coordinates, that is, to move about where they have always fished. Hence, the necessity of Bantay Dagat.
The lopsided equation disfavoring the Pampanga manasan assumes a much larger proportion given that their Bataan counterparts use more sophisticated fishing equipment, “fine, closely woven nets to catch even tiny fishes as dilis and alamang to sustain their OTOP (one-town-one-product) enterprises of bagoong and fish flakes.”
“Masyado ta nang mengapaburen (We have been neglected too much, for too long),” Lacap said.
Whatever happened to Panlilio’s campaign pledge on a cardboard atop his kariton – “Dala ta mu Kapitolyo ing daing ding pakakalulu (We will bring to the Capitol the anguish of the poor)”?
Incidentally, other than “anguish,” the Kapampangan “daing” also means “dried fish.”
There, Vice Mayor Lacap, the Capitol fed your daing to the Bataan sharks.
