Wednesday, September 17, 2008 Boulder kills fisher By Allan I. Varquez Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A MAN fishing in chest-deep waters in Barangay Suba-Basbas, Lapu-Lapu City was pinned to death by a boulder that fell on him after a dynamite explosion.
The blast was so loud that even the coastal residents of neighboring Barangay Marigondon heard it past 11 a.m. yesterday.
Part of a coral shelf, about the size of a two-story house, broke off right after the explosion. It fell on Apolonio Andales, 22, and his friend Iko Aton.
Aton escaped with only bruises in the head and back, however. There were five in the group, but the three others were at the top of the ledge and jumped out of harm’s way.
Andales’ entire body was covered by the huge boulder, which forced the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (Eruf), police and civilian explosives experts to use blasting caps and powder to break the boulder up.
It took two detonations, 10 minutes apart, before the huge rock broke. The rescue team then used a jackhammer and crowbar to break the boulder into smaller pieces.
They retrieved Andales’ body past 4 p.m., or some five hours after the accident happened.
Andales’ case is the third dynamite-related death since December last year in Lapu-Lapu City.
Last Dec. 5, Ebon Geronco was killed by a dynamite explosion while fishing off Marigondon. Last Feb. 10, a 47-year-old father was killed while his 12-year-old son lost his eyesight when a dynamite stick he was about to toss into Olango’s waters went off and destroyed their boat.
Mayor Arturo Radaza yesterday ordered the Barangay Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council to monitor more closely. He also ordered barangay officials to expand alternative livelihood projects for the city’s over 9,000 marginal fishers.
Nobody saw Andales or any of his four companions toss any dynamite, though. They only heard an explosion, followed by the fall of the coral shelf.
The five were overheard discussing where they would begin fishing within a three-hectare property of a certain Dr. Yobingco in Sitio Sagporon. Less an hour later, the accident happened.
“Wala ko kita nga sila maoy naggamit ug dinamita. Pero walay laing tawo sa ilang duol. Kanang tulo nagpatong sa ibabaw sa bato ug kanang duha apil nang namatay diha sa ubos. Pagbuto ang kanang bato natumba (I didn’t see them use any dynamite. I also didn’t see anyone else in the area. Three of them stood on top of the shelf, while the other two descended.
After the explosion, the boulder fell),” said Cayetano Espinosa, 84, the property’s caretaker.
Barangay Captain Gregoria Justiniani quickly dismissed theories that any of the fishermen from his barangay tossed the dynamite. All the 10 fishermen in her barangay have been given alternative livelihood, she said.
She admitted that dynamite fishing sometimes takes place in her barangay, but said the perpetrators were not residents of Suba-Basbas.
“Uban gani ana nila gikan sa Marigondon. Kining akong lugar nakasabot na gyod unsa ka ngil-ad nang (Some of them come
from Marigongon. My villagers know all about the harmful effects of) dynamite fishing,” she said.
She promised to include Wennie delos Santos, 29, Andales’ live-in partner, in the alternative livelihood project that her barangay has been offering to wives of registered fishers.
The livelihood projects include raising hogs and goats, and making necklaces.
Andales woke up at 10 a.m. and asked Wennie to bring their one-year-old daughter to the shore, where they usually shared a picnic with friends.
“Ang iyang pananghid nako nga manguha siya ug isda kay amoang kilawon. Musonod lang mi niya kon mahigmata na ang among anak (He said he would get some fish for us, and that I was supposed to follow as soon as the baby woke up),” she told Sun.Star Cebu in an interview.
But the site Wennie pointed out, where she and her partner would usually have picnics, is 300 meters away from the site of accident.
“Ambot lang nganong naabot siya didto. Unta dinhi ra man mi sa duol magpirmi (I don’t know why he ventured into that area),” she said.
Homicide investigator SPO3 Roselito Jumao-as said there is no doubt a dynamite explosion caused the boulder to fall.
But when he and his team arrived at the place, Andales’ four companions were no longer in sight. No one saw who caused the explosion.
The huge coral shelf often sheltered people who went swimming in Yobingco’s property.
Espinosa said that before he was born eight decades ago, the coral stone was already there. In his 30s when he was into
dynamite fishing, he would assemble his explosives atop the boulder, he said.
“Nihunong ko pag-edad na nako ug 54 kay nakasabot ko sa kangil-ad anang buhata (I stopped using dynamite when I turned 54 and realized how terrible the practice was),” he said. (AIV)
