NEGROS ORIENTAL -- The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Negros Oriental has endorsed the names of 1,112 fisherfolks coming from 12 local government units (LGUs) in the province to its main office in Metro Manila for possible future assistance, noting that they were not included in the list of Social Amelioration Program (SAP) beneficiaries, nor were they recipients of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) cash grant of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

According to BFAR-NegOr Provincial Fishery Officer (PFO) Florencia Mepaña, the LGUs that have submitted names of their fisherfolks were Tayasan, Tanjay City, Sibulan, Sta. Catalina, Siaton, Manjuyod, La Libertad, Jimalalud, Bindoy, Bais City, Basay, and Dumaguete City.

Mepaña bared that the Department of Energy (DOE) has planned to subsidize the gasoline for operators of motor bancas soon, but this has not been rolled out yet due to some documentation and confirmation.

“However, BFAR-NegOr has already listed the names of motor banca operators to be endorsed to DOE for this project,” she added.

Mepaña said that BFAR also implemented fish cage projects and distributed feeds along coastal areas and freshwater ponds for aquaculture purposes as these are the immediate needs of the fisherfolks.

BFAR continuously looks for other ways to provide additional benefits to fisherfolks affected by the pandemic, especially those who did not become recipients of SAP.

Mepana added that BFAR also supplied feeds for the tilapia fries in various hatcheries of different LGUs in the province to benefit upland and inland fisherfolks.

BFAR-NegOr provided counterpart for the feeds which is 70 percent of the project cost or the amount upland fisherfolks must spend in feeding their fishes to grow to a marketable size, Mepana said.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Agriculturist Office (PAO)-Negros Oriental has initiated an Agriculture and Veterinary Outreach Program Mission where they visit cities and municipalities to distribute seeds of rice, corn, vegetables and fruit-bearing trees,

PAO information officer Jade Darong said that the office has already supplied 312 bags of registered corn seeds, 453 bags of certified registered rice seeds, and more than 3,000 packs of assorted vegetable seeds.

Darong said through these interventions, the public would be assured that the government was doing its best to ensure food security to make sure every resident in the province would have food on his table.