It’s fish politics in Bohol
By Alex Pal
Inquirer News - Philippines
April 20, 2001
ONE has reached old age, they say, when one keeps talking about his past more than his future.
While having maintained his youthful looks at 43, Natalio Lajera must be feeling old. He keeps looking back at the time when the fish were so abundant in his village of Cabacongan on Cabilao Island off Loon, Bohol.
"There used to be a time when our nets would tear at the size of our tulingan," he reminisced.
An abundant catch is now just a memory for Tayoy, as he is called in the village, as well as for most of the 700 Cabilao fisherfolk.
Years of intrusion by commercial fishers into their fishing grounds, blast fishing and other destructive methods either scared the fish away or left the fish without any chance to breed.
With hardly any hope left, Tayoy joined hands with parish priest Ding Zamora in organizing the Nagkahiusang Mananagat sa Cabilao (United Fishers of Cabilao) or the Nagmaca in 1991 to empower the poor fisherfolk against the operators of commercial fishing and others employing destructive fishing methods.
Despite a series of arrests and patrols led by the priest and the local fishers, the commercial fishers and other illegal fishers repeatedly returned.
It was in 1997 when the concept of a marine sanctuary was first introduced in Cabilao. Patterned after the successful Apo Island community-based resource management project in Negros Oriental, the sanctuary closed 11.8 hectares of the 400-hectare Cabilao Reef to fishing and all other types of exploitation.
This area is what scientists call "a living bank account and reproduction area" of a large variety of fishes and invertebrates.
As chair of the Nagmaca, Tayoy leads his 20 members in alternately guarding the reef.
Election issue
The Nagmaca has been successful in some ways. But recent political developments are threatening the gains made so far by the fishers in their battle to keep the sanctuary.
"We have heard stories being peddled by the former barangay captain that if former Loon Mayor Fred Carresosa (Lakas-NUCD) wins his comeback bid in the elections, he will demolish the sanctuary," says Eduardo Castiotos, a Nagmaca member.
Carresosa was the mayor when the first two sanctuaries of Loon were declared on Cabilao and Sandignan Islands. But it was his vice mayor, now re-electionist Mayor Cesar Thomas Lopez (PDP-Laban), who was responsible for creating the local ordinance that declared a portion of the municipal waters a marine sanctuary to be managed by the community.
"Not true," Carresosa says, when told of the fishers’ fears. "I agree with marine sanctuaries in theory, but I am not in favor of its implementation because I keep hearing stories about selective enforcement of the law," he tells the INQUIRER.
Carresosa says politics has entered the picture in the enforcement of fishery laws in Cabilao, pointing to the recent arrest and imprisonment of some locals who had intruded the sanctuary.
"The mayor ordered the filing of the case against the violators and he also paid their bail. Isn’t that political?" Carresosa asks.
He also says that what convinced him to accept the project of setting up marine sanctuaries in Loon was the promised budget of P3 million for his town, whose only income then was P15 million that came from the Internal Revenue Allotment.
The money was to be coursed through a local non-government organization in Bohol, but the arrangement had yet to materialize, said Carresosa.
His running mate, Rolando Paluso, is more vocal in his criticism of the marine sanctuaries’ operations.
He says the small fishermen are being deprived of their own resources and are sometimes sent to jail, while the commercial fishing operators are allowed to go scot-free.
Paluso says the fish sanctuaries in Barangays Cabacungan, Calayugan Sur and Pondol in Cabilao are okay but voices his opposition to the plan to establish more of such sanctuaries in other barangays, like in Basdaku and Tangnan.
"It is impractical to put up fish sanctuaries in all coastal barangays in Loon because the marginalized fishers, who live on a hand-to-mouth existence, will eventually be driven out of the areas," he says.
Marine sanctuaries, he says, should not be set up in areas where people glean for food during low tide.
Loon has seven marine sanctuaries that cover around 90 hectares, or even less than one percent of its total coastal waters, even as the Fisheries Code authorizes the use of as big as 25-40 percent for this purpose.
Environment vote
The environment issue, Paluso says, "can make one win or lose (the elections), depending on the conscientization and politicization of the voters."
Paluso admits that issues like these are best raised during elections since "there can be no election without issues."
For a town with more than half of the population depending on the sea for food, the environment is a big issue because it is tied up with livelihood, explains Councilor Clovis Nazareno.
"The critics of the marine sanctuaries are only harping at the fact that the area is off-limits to fishers. They don’t look at the livelihood side of the projects such as goat raising, chicken dispersal, fish cages and even the increased fish catch," he says.
Reelectionist Vice Mayor Raul Barbarona, an environmental lawyer, says all the marine sanctuaries in Loon were the choices of the community through several barangay consultations. "Not one was rammed down (their throats) by the municipal government," he says.
He also refutes charges of selective enforcement of laws in the marine sanctuary, saying that while big-time fishermen who encroach on the sanctuary are not imprisoned, they are fined before they are allowed to leave.
He says the case of three fishermen who were sent to jail recently was a result of their skipping the arraignment, not because of their having entered the sanctuary.
Like his opponents, Barbarona said he believes that a united fishers’ voice can spell the difference in the elections, which has the environment as the only sound issue apart from the usual mudslinging involving graft and corruption charges.
Mayor Lopez, meanwhile, warns that raising the environment as an election issue can have more serious effects.
"The explanations that the critics give have been oversimplified to a point that it may run counter to the rationale of putting up marine reserves in the future."
"Our opponents harp on what the fishers can get ‘today’ but don’t think about tomorrow. There might come a time when it will not be sustainable anymore," Lopez says.
Dr. Angel C. Alcala, former environment secretary and acknowledged pioneer in the establishment of marine sanctuaries in the Philippines, thinks that the issue in Bohol is caused by the opposition’s lack of understanding on the functions of sanctuaries.
"They better be educated on the functions of a marine sanctuary," he says.
Not new
The idea of an "environment vote" tied up with livelihood is not really new as Alcala saw this technique being used in 1980 by Cebu politicians.
"It’s possible that an environmental issue can bring in or turn away votes. If there is a project that people will not like, they will vote against the candidate who proposed it," Alcala says.
Alcala was then the director of the Silliman University Marine Laboratory when he started the first marine sanctuary on Sumilon Island in Cebu’s southern tip in 1974.
Some areas of Sumilon were declared a no-fishing zone. Mayoral candidates in Santander and Oslob towns used this as an election issue.
In a book to be published by Bookmark Publishing in August detailing his experience in Sumilon, Alcala says the mayoral candidates of Santander and Oslob were not in favor of conservation. They also promised to "give
Sumilon back to the fishermen" and claimed that Sumilon, being a part of Cebu, should be exploited by the people of Cebu.
The residents of the two towns were also not too clear about the benefits from the marine reserve, in contrast to the over 90-percent acceptance rating by the Bohol fishermen.
Alcala says the mayoral candidates, who were known for their links to commercial fishing operations, kept their promise shortly after election by encouraging the fishers to enter the sanctuary, using the muro-ami method, in 1980. By then, fish catch in Sumilon started to decline.
The municipal councils of Santander and Oslob eventually passed ordinances, stopping fishing activities in the reserve in 1987.
"Petty politics," writes Alcala, "can influence the course of conservation initiatives and should be given careful consideration in the conduct of conservation projects."
Winning chances
Would fishers decide the elections in Loon? Vice Mayor Barbarona thinks so. "This election will see if there really is a voice of the fisherfolk," he says.
On the other hand, former Mayor Carresosa said he believes that a candidate’s fate cannot yet be anchored solely on the environment issue.
While the politicians are locked in the issue of whether or not marine sanctuaries are beneficial to the people, the fish have seen its value and have returned to the reef.
A study by the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute counted a six-fold increase in fish species since 1997.
This has inspired the fishermen from the neighboring barangay of Pantudlan to create a 10-hectare marine sanctuary at their own initiative.
For most of them, this could be the only treasure they could leave their children.
By Alex Pal
Inquirer News - Philippines
April 20, 2001
ONE has reached old age, they say, when one keeps talking about his past more than his future.
While having maintained his youthful looks at 43, Natalio Lajera must be feeling old. He keeps looking back at the time when the fish were so abundant in his village of Cabacongan on Cabilao Island off Loon, Bohol.
"There used to be a time when our nets would tear at the size of our tulingan," he reminisced.
An abundant catch is now just a memory for Tayoy, as he is called in the village, as well as for most of the 700 Cabilao fisherfolk.
Years of intrusion by commercial fishers into their fishing grounds, blast fishing and other destructive methods either scared the fish away or left the fish without any chance to breed.
With hardly any hope left, Tayoy joined hands with parish priest Ding Zamora in organizing the Nagkahiusang Mananagat sa Cabilao (United Fishers of Cabilao) or the Nagmaca in 1991 to empower the poor fisherfolk against the operators of commercial fishing and others employing destructive fishing methods.
Despite a series of arrests and patrols led by the priest and the local fishers, the commercial fishers and other illegal fishers repeatedly returned.
It was in 1997 when the concept of a marine sanctuary was first introduced in Cabilao. Patterned after the successful Apo Island community-based resource management project in Negros Oriental, the sanctuary closed 11.8 hectares of the 400-hectare Cabilao Reef to fishing and all other types of exploitation.
This area is what scientists call "a living bank account and reproduction area" of a large variety of fishes and invertebrates.
As chair of the Nagmaca, Tayoy leads his 20 members in alternately guarding the reef.
Election issue
The Nagmaca has been successful in some ways. But recent political developments are threatening the gains made so far by the fishers in their battle to keep the sanctuary.
"We have heard stories being peddled by the former barangay captain that if former Loon Mayor Fred Carresosa (Lakas-NUCD) wins his comeback bid in the elections, he will demolish the sanctuary," says Eduardo Castiotos, a Nagmaca member.
Carresosa was the mayor when the first two sanctuaries of Loon were declared on Cabilao and Sandignan Islands. But it was his vice mayor, now re-electionist Mayor Cesar Thomas Lopez (PDP-Laban), who was responsible for creating the local ordinance that declared a portion of the municipal waters a marine sanctuary to be managed by the community.
"Not true," Carresosa says, when told of the fishers’ fears. "I agree with marine sanctuaries in theory, but I am not in favor of its implementation because I keep hearing stories about selective enforcement of the law," he tells the INQUIRER.
Carresosa says politics has entered the picture in the enforcement of fishery laws in Cabilao, pointing to the recent arrest and imprisonment of some locals who had intruded the sanctuary.
"The mayor ordered the filing of the case against the violators and he also paid their bail. Isn’t that political?" Carresosa asks.
He also says that what convinced him to accept the project of setting up marine sanctuaries in Loon was the promised budget of P3 million for his town, whose only income then was P15 million that came from the Internal Revenue Allotment.
The money was to be coursed through a local non-government organization in Bohol, but the arrangement had yet to materialize, said Carresosa.
His running mate, Rolando Paluso, is more vocal in his criticism of the marine sanctuaries’ operations.
He says the small fishermen are being deprived of their own resources and are sometimes sent to jail, while the commercial fishing operators are allowed to go scot-free.
Paluso says the fish sanctuaries in Barangays Cabacungan, Calayugan Sur and Pondol in Cabilao are okay but voices his opposition to the plan to establish more of such sanctuaries in other barangays, like in Basdaku and Tangnan.
"It is impractical to put up fish sanctuaries in all coastal barangays in Loon because the marginalized fishers, who live on a hand-to-mouth existence, will eventually be driven out of the areas," he says.
Marine sanctuaries, he says, should not be set up in areas where people glean for food during low tide.
Loon has seven marine sanctuaries that cover around 90 hectares, or even less than one percent of its total coastal waters, even as the Fisheries Code authorizes the use of as big as 25-40 percent for this purpose.
Environment vote
The environment issue, Paluso says, "can make one win or lose (the elections), depending on the conscientization and politicization of the voters."
Paluso admits that issues like these are best raised during elections since "there can be no election without issues."
For a town with more than half of the population depending on the sea for food, the environment is a big issue because it is tied up with livelihood, explains Councilor Clovis Nazareno.
"The critics of the marine sanctuaries are only harping at the fact that the area is off-limits to fishers. They don’t look at the livelihood side of the projects such as goat raising, chicken dispersal, fish cages and even the increased fish catch," he says.
Reelectionist Vice Mayor Raul Barbarona, an environmental lawyer, says all the marine sanctuaries in Loon were the choices of the community through several barangay consultations. "Not one was rammed down (their throats) by the municipal government," he says.
He also refutes charges of selective enforcement of laws in the marine sanctuary, saying that while big-time fishermen who encroach on the sanctuary are not imprisoned, they are fined before they are allowed to leave.
He says the case of three fishermen who were sent to jail recently was a result of their skipping the arraignment, not because of their having entered the sanctuary.
Like his opponents, Barbarona said he believes that a united fishers’ voice can spell the difference in the elections, which has the environment as the only sound issue apart from the usual mudslinging involving graft and corruption charges.
Mayor Lopez, meanwhile, warns that raising the environment as an election issue can have more serious effects.
"The explanations that the critics give have been oversimplified to a point that it may run counter to the rationale of putting up marine reserves in the future."
"Our opponents harp on what the fishers can get ‘today’ but don’t think about tomorrow. There might come a time when it will not be sustainable anymore," Lopez says.
Dr. Angel C. Alcala, former environment secretary and acknowledged pioneer in the establishment of marine sanctuaries in the Philippines, thinks that the issue in Bohol is caused by the opposition’s lack of understanding on the functions of sanctuaries.
"They better be educated on the functions of a marine sanctuary," he says.
Not new
The idea of an "environment vote" tied up with livelihood is not really new as Alcala saw this technique being used in 1980 by Cebu politicians.
"It’s possible that an environmental issue can bring in or turn away votes. If there is a project that people will not like, they will vote against the candidate who proposed it," Alcala says.
Alcala was then the director of the Silliman University Marine Laboratory when he started the first marine sanctuary on Sumilon Island in Cebu’s southern tip in 1974.
Some areas of Sumilon were declared a no-fishing zone. Mayoral candidates in Santander and Oslob towns used this as an election issue.
In a book to be published by Bookmark Publishing in August detailing his experience in Sumilon, Alcala says the mayoral candidates of Santander and Oslob were not in favor of conservation. They also promised to "give
Sumilon back to the fishermen" and claimed that Sumilon, being a part of Cebu, should be exploited by the people of Cebu.
The residents of the two towns were also not too clear about the benefits from the marine reserve, in contrast to the over 90-percent acceptance rating by the Bohol fishermen.
Alcala says the mayoral candidates, who were known for their links to commercial fishing operations, kept their promise shortly after election by encouraging the fishers to enter the sanctuary, using the muro-ami method, in 1980. By then, fish catch in Sumilon started to decline.
The municipal councils of Santander and Oslob eventually passed ordinances, stopping fishing activities in the reserve in 1987.
"Petty politics," writes Alcala, "can influence the course of conservation initiatives and should be given careful consideration in the conduct of conservation projects."
Winning chances
Would fishers decide the elections in Loon? Vice Mayor Barbarona thinks so. "This election will see if there really is a voice of the fisherfolk," he says.
On the other hand, former Mayor Carresosa said he believes that a candidate’s fate cannot yet be anchored solely on the environment issue.
While the politicians are locked in the issue of whether or not marine sanctuaries are beneficial to the people, the fish have seen its value and have returned to the reef.
A study by the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute counted a six-fold increase in fish species since 1997.
This has inspired the fishermen from the neighboring barangay of Pantudlan to create a 10-hectare marine sanctuary at their own initiative.
For most of them, this could be the only treasure they could leave their children.
