Guimaras fishers now surviving on relief goods
Fishers at Brgy. Cabalagnan, Nueva Valencia,
Guimaras stay idle due to the massive oil spill
affecting Guimaras Strait.
Photos courtesy of Canadian Urban Institute
Fisherfolks from Nueva Valencia town in Guimaras province are starting to feel the long term effects of the disaster that took place just over the weekend.
The provincial government and the Department of Social Welfare and Development has already started distributing sacks of rice and cans of sardines to residents of the affected barangays. Guimaras Representative Edgar Espinosa also gave out food reliefs.
But residents are pessimistic that soon, food will be scarce as a result of livelihood that has been badly hit by the oil spill.
"We'll just rely on whatever that is given to us since we could no longer fish, nor can we sell our catch," said Kagawad Connie Gamuyao of Barangay Lapaz, considered among the hardest hit areas by the oil spill.
"Have pity on us, fishing is our only means of livelihood," said Kagawad Luzminda Basco. "We could barely make both ends meet."
In Nueva Valencia alone, there are about 2,000 fisher folks affected by the oil spill, according to Mayor Diosdado Gonzaga, almost half of the total of 4,000 to 5,000. A total of 15,000 individuals have been affected.
Basco said that the food aid extended by the government is only good for today.
We have no more food for Friday, she stressed.
Brothers Jomel and Gilbert Basco, interviewed by The News Today yesterday morning in Sitio Sumirab, Brgy. Lapaz, said that they have no catch, and worse, nothing to eat.
"We caught nothing, not even just for our own consumption," they said. As they were talking to this reporter, their colleagues were fixing their nets.
"(Fishing) This is our only livelihood," they add.
Residents of this barangay were shocked to see a film of oil blanketing the coastline as early as Saturday, the day after M/T Solar I sank off the coast of Guimaras, carrying with it 2 million liters of bunker fuel owned by Petron Corporation.
"We were not even informed. We came to know of the oil spill through the media. Had we known earlier, we would have gathered the shells were cultured just along the coastline, the crabs, and everything else we could sell or eat," said Basco.
To make things worse, fish brokers refuse to purchase our catch, Basco said.
Teachers are also telling their students not to eat fish coming from the area of the oil spill, she adds. Governor JC Rahman Nava has advised fisherfolks to refrain from fishing in the affected areas in the meantime.
Gonzaga assured that they will exhaust their resources just so that they could provide for the subsistence of the affected residents.
"We will exhaust our resources. As long as we have resources, we will continue to give them aid," the mayor said.
But with the uncertainty over how long it would take to rehabilitate the affected areas, those affected may have to find an alternative means of livelihood other than enlisting in the government's clean up operations.