ILOILO City is bursting with activities. Road works are everywhere. Structures are being retrofitted. High-rise buildings are under construction. Rice paddies are being converted to subdivisions. People are busy minding their works and their businesses.
The forthcoming Asia Pacific Economic Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit may have contributed to the development but I guess Iloilo's time has come. In five years, the Iloilo skyline will be like that of Makati and Cebu.
Other than attending to family bonding in Iloilo, my one week stay was educational as well. I met Tomas Hautea, who is acknowledged as the “Bangus King” for his contribution to the development of the milk fish industry not just in Iloilo but also in the rest of the country.
We visited his huge fishponds in Dumangas that he was further expanding. Hautea is an old school businessman with hands-on administration and great passion for his vocation. And these have rubbed on to his children who, except for one, are involved in the business.
What distinguishes Hautea from his contemporaries is that he operates a hatchery where bangus fries are produced for his ponds and for other operators.
On my final day in Iloilo, I was accompanied by Hautea to the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (Seafdec), the institution that researched and developed cultured bangus.
A former high school classmate, Manolo Almendras, a marine scientist, who currently serves in Development Communication, toured us in the facility that continues to develop technology in propagating not just bangus but also tilapia, sand fish, sea cucumber and seahorse, among others. The center trains fish technicians who come from the Philippines and abroad.
While Seafdec has accomplished as much to marine life development as the International Rice Reasearch Institute (IRRI) has to rice, it needs people like Hautea who are willing to implement its findings into the ponds and fish cages. If that happens, there will be no worry ever of shortage of fish to feed the world.