DAGUPAN CITY—A group of small fishermen here has asked Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) national director, retired Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Eduardo B. Gongona to take disciplinary action against the agency’s head in the Ilocos region who had defied a decision by the Pangasinan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
The Ulupan Na Sumisigay ed Dagupan headed by its president, Ronie Cayabyab, informed Gongona BFAR Regional Director Nestor Domenden had repeatedly refused to release fishing paraphernalia confiscated from four fishermen by the Police Maritime Command and turned over to the BFAR months ago.
The fishermen, which sought the help of the Regional Maritime Advisory Council (RMAC) chaired by former National Security Council Assistant Secretary Lynn Castillo-Ang, said Domenden’s refusal to release the fishing gadgets has deprived the small fishermen of their livelihood.
The gadgets—ropes, fish net, buoy, sinker, fishermen identification cards, crewmen’s licenses, fishing vessel license and permit, otter trawl board and 50 kilos of fish catch—were seized when members of the maritime police intercepted the fishing boats along the communal fishing ground in Binmaley and Lingayen, Pangasinan.
Ang-Castillo said the RMAC, which she chairs, is spearheading multisectoral efforts in helping small fishermen in the region upgrade their livelihood potentials, as well as in the campaign to protect the communal waters from foreign poachers, blast fishers and even drug rings attempting to use the Ilocos coastlines as drop-points.
On the initiative of Ang-Castillo, the RMAC is also pushing plans to put up permanent maritime police stations in strategic areas along the coastlines in the region to more effectively safeguard the waters of the West Philippine Sea.
Recently, a fishing boat of Vietnamese fishermen trying to escape a team of the Philippine Navy that accosted them for poaching on communal waters in Bolinao, Pangasinan, rammed into the naval gunboat, prompting its crewmen to open fire. Two of the Vietnamese fishers were killed in the melee.
Ulupan said the fishermen—Ronald Ramos, Nelson Sison, Roger Manuel and Samuel Ramos—were charged with violation of Republic Act 10654, Section 93 for using fine-mesh nets.
However, Provincial Prosecutor Abraham Ramos II, based on the report of Senior Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Nicolas Reintar Jr., dismissed the charges in a resolution dated March 21, stating the boats used were not commercial fishing vessels and that fishing was done within communal waters.
Reintar noted in his report the fishermen were already pulling up and loading the fishing nets unto their boats when the maritime police accosted them.
In dismissing the charges, the prosecutor gave weight to the absence of a navigational chart printout to show the exact location where fishing was done.
Citing the prosecutor’s decision, the lawyer of the boats owner, Samuel Ramos, wrote a letter on June 16 and September 11, to Domenden asking for the release of the fishing gadgets, but the BFAR official turned down the request.
Reached for comment, Domenden clarified his office cannot as yet act on the request as a separate administrative case was filed against the complainants and is awaiting resolution by the BFAR adjudication board.
Domenden’s claim was belied by Cayabyab, who said BFAR fieldmen in Dagupan were instead asking the fishermen to amicably settle the issue to have their gadgets released.
Expressing lament over the plight of the four fishermen, the Ulupan group informed the maritime advisory council the BFAR official had also been pussyfooting on requests for assistance by other small fishermen’s groups in the province.