Atty. Gloria Estenzo-Ramos
Who does not know about Tañon Strait — a very special place in the hearts of living and non-living beings?
Tañon is that narrow but deep strait separating the Provinces of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental and Cebu.
It is the traditional fishing ground of our subsistence fisherfolk numbering more than 40,000.
President Fidel V. Ramos, through Proclamation No. 1234, declared said body of water as a protected area in the category of a protected seascape under RA 7586 (National Protected Areas System Act) twenty years ago, on May 27, 1998, in Moalboal, Cebu waters.
It was a “paper park” for 17 years, like many so-called “protected areas” in the country – no management body and thus, no management plan, and “unprotected” from human’s scheming ways to get rich and richer, come what may.
In February 2015, the first General Assembly of the Protected Area Management Board became a reality with the convergence of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the Cebu Provincial Government under Governor Hilario Davide III, and non-government organizations like Oceana, Rare and Phil. Earth Justice Center.
The past 3 years were highly significant: the PAMB, Executive Committee and mini-management bodies functioned and adopted policies to strengthen the protection of the area, including implementing the ban on commercial fishing, filing cases against the plunders of our ocean, designation of special prosecutors — a first under NIPAS Act — and requiring vessel monitoring devices to track the behavior of the
commercial fishing vessels, as so required by RA 10654 — another first for a protected area.
Anecdotes of happy subsistence fishers include seeing species of fish that they thought were gone forever.
Abundance of fish for artisanal fishers should make everyone happy, right? Wrong.
Alas, many still don’t, or, worse, refuse to acknowledge Tañon Strait’s status as a significant marine area so deserving of being spared from the clutches of humanity’s destructive ways, greed, and apathy.
No single local government unit in Tañon Strait has more than 15 kilometers of municipal waters.
Commercial fishing in vessels having 3.1 gross tonnage and over are banned nationwide from fishing in the municipal waters, including the entire breadth of the Tañon Strait.
It seems forces are at work for illegal commercial fishing to resume, as they have, in fact, in the protected seascape.
Only the Navy and the Coast Guard, and some of the local government units, are patrolling in the area. Scientists reported widespread commercial fishing happening in the Cebu portion of Tañon Strait.
The BFAR regional Director Alan Poquita has publicly said that the agency has not issued any license for commercial fishing in Tañon Strait, acknowledging that commercial fishing is banned in the area.
Where do these fishers get their undeserved sense of entitlement from?
Tañon Strait, at 20, still needs our utmost care, respect and vigilance.
Let’s protect it and the artisanal fisherfolk and their families in the area.