Yap: ‘Sangtuwaryo’

IN Jovy Taghoy-Gerodias’s Sun.Star Cebu report yesterday, Dexter Yaun, 22, went fishing with his father off Tominjao, Daanbantayan last Tuesday. It would have been a day like any other, except that the two weren’t set for a catch, they wanted a haul.

They wanted to blast their way through the sea, and net whatever flips belly-up on surface.

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Unfortunately though, as the outrigger bobbed up and down the waves, as Dexter waited for timing, the dynamite in his hands exploded, leaving the upper half of his body unrecognizably blown to smithereens. The blast went to as far as leave his father’s hands in shreds.

The story was that Dexter was a few days towards marrying the woman he loved. The big haul he was set to do could have sizably infused a few more pomp into his big day.

Well, not everybody’s lives are blessed with the plot of a fairy tale. Dexter’s had all the elements of a Greek tragedy—which is to say also that his story exists in varied mutations everywhere.

Just this week, too, the Bantay Dagat and local police in Poro, Camotes arrested five illegal fishers.

But Ramon Magsaysay awardee and environmentalist lawyer Antonio Oposa says the time has come to go beyond law enforcement. “We want a mind shift,” he said.

I don’t know how the other NGO’s go about in helping fisherfolk communities and safeguarding marine ecosystems, but a prototype method by the Law of Nature Foundation Inc.’s School of the SEAs is one idea worth following. Conceived in most parts by marine biologist Bonar Laureto (who Oposa calls as his “right brain”), the method indeed caps Oposa’s “mind shift,” which does sound like a tall order, into a phenomenal two-day event. How is that possible? Well, it’s like this:

A group of biologists surveys the barangay’s immediate underwater terrain, capturing images of its sad state. At night, the group presents the shots to the community, but only after showing the locally-produced “Sangtuwaryo” (directed by Achilles Modequillo pro bono), a full-length film that has, you can say, a mutated version of Dexter’s story.

I saw it shown to communities in Sorsogon province, and witnessed how the story’s familiarity gripped the folks’ hearts and saw not a few crumbling in tears (I should mention that all these are happening in the presence of barangay officials). And just when they’re at the height of these emotions, the group, led by Bonar, unleashes some lessons in science and law—from fish life to ordinance drafting.

Should a thousand residents sign a petition to create a marine sanctuary in the barangay, the officials are left with no choice but to take heed to that. Fish warden Tuti Menguito will explain to the folks the benefits of having a sanctuary. He’d say that the sea, unlike the usual bank, is one coffer from which you can “withdraw” even without a single “deposit.” All you have to do is leave her alone, and you’ll see her wealth burgeoning robustly in no time. The group presents an ordinance template the barangay officials can adapt.

The following day, the community will get orientation in the management of a marine sanctuary and on the same day, actually define the borders of the protected area as they themselves release the buoys out to the sea.

By the end of the day, you will find a community with a dream and with a strong sense of ownership of the marine resources they are trying to revive. In no time, schools of fishes will have to fill that tiny patch of sea to the rafters.

You bet, you shall see Dexter’s story as an old, closed and funny chapter, some blast from the past.

(januaribox@yahoo.com)