The rally is to drum up public attention that his constituents’ livelihood is stalled owing to arrests done by the Maritime Police to 11 fishing boat owners.
Mendoza claimed that the complainant Jason Atillo who provided the Maritime Police with pumpboats, cameras and other fishing paraphernalia could be “coming from somewhere,” adding, “We have strong information that Atillo is funded by exporters of Taiwan. We know his identity and where do you think are those equipment coming from.”
Mendoza explained that Atillo’s group places their so-called “bobo” in the area where even commercial vessels pass through.
“When their ‘bobo’ was destroyed, suddenly all of our fishing vessels became illegal including that of Oca Verdeflor. We have already been here for more than 30 years and this Atillo is a newcomer. Out of the blues, he placed his ‘bobo’ anywhere he wanted,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza is calling on the Maritime Police to be wary of Atillo’s dubious personality.
Jamelo, for his part, reiterated his proposal that the City Agriculturist Gwendolyn Nifras and cluster head executive assistant Ernie Pineda must go down from their offices and do the coastal management themselves.
“With this problem, it would be best that Nifras and Pineda call for a general assembly comprising the police, agriculture, the Bureau of Fisheries and
Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the fishing community, Bantay Dagat and all other stakeholders and resolve the problem facing the impoverished fishermen,” Jamelo said.
Jamelo stressed that hungry fishermen will not understand all those legislative hearings but are thankful for councilor Alex Paglumotan’s excitement in solving the problem of the fish sector.
Meanwhile, Nifras reacted that his office had been sensitive to the plight of the fishing communities not just in Barangay 2 but the whole coastal areas from Punta Taytay to Puno Banago.
“Maybe not Jamelo himself because he is a businessman. But my office had been conducting a series of meetings with the poorest of the poor among the fishing communities,” Nifras said.
Nifras stressed that he understood the situation, saying, “Presently Barangay 1, 2 and Banago are slowly being organized. We are working with fishing associations, though, of which Jamelo does not have an association in the first place.”
Nifras agreed that the fishing sector needed the facilities of a research outfit to better direct governance of said sector.
