By CARMIE DULGUIME

It is no secret that there is money in dynamite fishing and gold panning. For fishermen, the fish catch overflows with one blast of explosive. For small-scale mining prospectors, a few hours of panning can recover at least a gram of gold, which can be sold from ₱1,000 to ₱2,000 per gram.

The townsfolk of Coron, Palawan and Oriental Mindoro knew that these activities would never sustain them in the long run, but poverty, along with lack of knowledge and skills, have driven some of them to such desperate means.

Then along came Malampaya Foundation, Inc. (MFI). Together with national government agencies, LGUs, and local organizations, the foundation and partners helped the communities to take a turn for the better. Marine life in Coron came back to life.

Volunteerism thrived, fish catch and crops harvest increased, and livelihood opportunities flourished. I had the privilege of visiting these two places and talked to the local volunteers, some of whom have turned away from mining and illegal fishing.

CHANGING TO SUSTAINABILITY Alepcede 'Mang Alip' Yayen (above) and Juanito 'Mang Jun' Adezas (below) have both left the illegal fishing trade and opted to rely on more sustainable means of income

Wardens of the waters

Recruited members and volunteers of Bantay Dagat (sea patrol) have been serving as wardens of the marine protected areas (MPA) in the country. In Coron, some of the members were former illegal fishermen who found the value of watching over marine life sanctuaries more beneficial and sustainable. They work day in and day out to watch over the MPA, which was established with MFI’s support in 2014, taking turns to make sure the marine conservation program is implemented without interruption.

Juanito “Mang Jun” Adezas, who admitted he was one of those who used dynamite and cyanide to fish, said he didn’t think twice about signing up as volunteer when he heard about the Bantay Dagat recruitment in 2011. Now that they have been reaping the fruits of their labor as civilian sea patrollers, he promised never to go back to illegal fishing. “When I started to have a family of my own, I knew I had to change my ways for the future of my children,” Mang Jun said in Tagalog.

Alepcede “Mang Alip” Yayen, another reformed fisherman, added: “Change. That’s my reason and inspiration. If we don’t start within ourselves, nothing will come out of illegal fishing. Yes, I did have a good harvest then, but I’m harvesting more now since the fishes are propagating.”

There are still a few illegal fishing activities every now and then, and serious confrontation between the illegal fishermen and the volunteers are inevitable. Fortunately, the volunteers’ training provided by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) also teaches them how to handle tense situations. Now that illegal fishing has been controlled and has significantly waned, the community feels the big difference in their daily catch.

On the surface, the waters of barangays Marcilla and Bulalacao are fascinating to the adventurous tourists who want to discover uncharted tourist spots. Underneath, these marine biodiversity hotspots have also seen the regeneration of coral reefs and return of such species as the Napoleon wrasse and black-tip sharks, along with other previously endangered marine species.

Sustainable livelihood

Apong Dakulo Clemente “Apo Menthe” Cuizon recalls living from day to day before MFI arrived, not knowing where to get the next meal to put on his family’s plate. Revered as the chieftain of all chieftains of the Tagbanua tribe, the 81-year-old Apo had seen how fellow IPs struggled to earn a living and raise their families despite the abundance of marine life surrounding Barangay Marcilla and Bulalacao in Coron.

“In the beginning, our plates were nearly empty. We didn’t know how we could get rice to feed our families,” said Apo Menthe in Tagalog. “Today, since the Malampaya (Foundation) gave us livelihood as part of conservation work, we can buy rice and have plenty of food for our daily sustenance.”

Born and raised in Coron, all Apo Menthe ever did—and knew how—growing up was to fish and plant vegetables and fruit-bearing trees. Thanks to the capacity-building program of MFI, he and the rest of the community have added hog raising and seaweed processing as sources of livelihood. It was this self-sufficiency that made life more bearable for them and enabled them to thrive despite the limitations brought by the pandemic.

“Here in Marcilla, life was normal during the height of the pandemic. Although we found it difficult to go to town to buy other essentials or sell our products, our harvest was enough to feed our families,” said Apo Menthe.

He pointed to a school of tulingan (tuna) jumping from the waters by the shore of Diwaran Island, proving that marine life is thriving again throughout the MPA in this side of Northern Palawan. Over at Barangay Dulangan in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, one of the communities being supported by MFI is the Puerto Galera Mangrove Conservation and Ecotourism Area. It was here where I met 56-year old Emma, one of the volunteers taking care of the mangrove forest and the tourist facility.

Before the pandemic hit, the place was earning around ₱23,000 a day from tourists’ entrance fees alone. Established in 2015, the mangrove conservation area provided aid to the families of those who were displaced when the local government clamped down on mining.

Emma was one of those who did gold panning on the side while selling rice cakes and other direct-selling products before she became a volunteer. She would wake up at dawn to cook her rice cakes, then go to the mining site at around 8 in the morning to sell her goods and pan for gold. There were days she would stay until midnight to finish her tasks. She had been doing this since 2005 when her husband got incapacitated by a vehicular accident. She also lost her eldest son to the accident, forcing her to find means to sustain her family and her children’s education. That was when she decided to join the miners in Dulangan for 10 years before the LGU stopped issuing mining permits.

The local government invited them to join the mangrove project to help them recover from their lost livelihood. Working as one of the volunteers, she manages to earn enough to make ends meet. Her daughter has since graduated from college and is now helping the household as a teacher. “As a volunteer, we don’t earn as much as we used to especially when the pandemic hit and the tourists stopped coming,” Emma lamented. “But they’re slowly coming back since we reopened. With hope, we get the old big crowd back.”

MFI, the LGUs, and national government have been working harder to help the communities in Coron and Mindoro through capacity building programs. Not only do these help provide livelihood, but also bring dignity back into their way of life. More important, the communities learn to take care of the environment that gives wealth beyond what money can offer.