Sunday, April 06, 2008 Dealer warns of fish shortage By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
JUST as all eyes are focused on rice shortage, veteran crabmeat processing and dealer Ramon Jamelo deplored the state of Bacolod City's urban fish supply reportedly owing to highly polluted Bacolod shoreline from Barangay Punta Taytay to Barangay 1.
Jamelo said during his boyhood days, he can go fishing in the Banago Barangay 2 seashore, but today, fishermen who own small boats must travel more than three kilometers from the shoreline just to catch fish.
"Majority of the fishing community members must contend with seawater organisms that thrive on polluted waters of seashore rocks like crabs at their own risks," he said.
Jamelo stressed in vernacular that the gravest problem in the country and even here in the province is: "Kun indi lukpan, indi man mag-giho (we are reactive not proactive in facing problems)."
"Shortages and insufficiencies in all sectors have been perpetually experienced by Filipinos because of corruption, incompetence and no planning at all. Yet, our leadership does not do anything at all to prepare for this," he added. "The root of the problem then is not shortages and insufficiencies but leadership, corrupt leadership."
As far as fish supply is concerned, the Negros sea no longer produce what is supposed to yield, Jamelo added. "Mahulat naman ta lukpan (Must we wait for the eleventh hour)?"
"Did anybody notice that fish and other viands are very expensive as well? Our eyes are in rice but viands, fish, are getting expensive daily," he stressed.
He said: "the problem is simple but we did not address it properly at the time when the problem was still manageable."
"Now, how would you deal with the squatters' colony swarming the Bacolod shoreline? The problem is education and protection. Educate the community regarding environment cleanliness and protect legitimate fishermen against illegal fishing entities," Jamelo added.
"(But) how can we do this when there is no plan for the fishing industry in the first place? Our eyes need to be opened to the state of the fishing industry in the province and Bacolod City as well," Jamelo explained.
