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By Ira Karen Apanay, Senior Reporter
Concerned about the livelihood of fishermen in
Romblon province, the Department of Agriculture said it plans to buy
fish caught there and bring them to markets in Metro Manila.
The Agriculture department will spend about P5
million for this assistance project, Secretary Arthur Yap said
Thursday.
Residents of Romblon have been avoiding eating
fish, spooked by the possible contamination of seafood that may have
come in contact with the capsized MV Princess of the Stars, where
hundreds of corpses and a cargo of toxic pesticides have yet to be
recovered from the vessel. The Princess sank off Sibuyan Island in
the province last month with about 850 passengers and crew during
Typhoon Frank.
Yap visited Romblon following his series of
inspection trips since last week to the Panay Island provinces that
were hit the hardest by the storm.
He went to a local market in Odiongan, Tablas
Island, where he confirmed that the local demand for fish has
significantly gone down.
To help allay fears, the secretary joined local
executives in eating local seafood for breakfast in Odiongan to show
consumers it was safe to eat fish caught in Romblon.
Joining Yap for breakfast were Mayors Eddie Mazo
of Corcuera, Limuel Cipriano of Concepion and Rober Fabella of
Calatrava. Agriculture Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla and the
department’s regional executive director, Tony Gerundio, were also
present.
Yap said the continuous testing of waters off
Tablas Island showed no trace yet of endosulfan, a restricted
pesticide used only by two multinational pineapple growers in
Mindanao and that was onboard the sunken vessel of Sulpicio Lines.
Ten metric tons of the toxic pesticides was aboard the ship.
The test results mean that there has been no
pesticide leakage yet, said the secretary, who added that the Bureau
of Plant Industry is conducting water-sample testing at 12-hour
intervals.
Assistance to farmers
The Agriculture chief also distributed seeds and
fertilizers to Romblon farmers affected by the typhoon, which
battered rural folk in 11 regions and caused more than P7-billion
worth of agriculture and fisheries damage.
Yap earlier ordered Provincial Manager Chito
Padilla of the National Food Authority to increase that agency’s
rice distribution volume in the province—like what was done last
month for Mindanao and Western Visayas to stabilize the supply and
prices of rice.
During his dialogue with Romblon officials, Yap
presented the Agriculture department’s proposed relief package for
farmers, fishermen and fishpond operators in the province and the
rest of the country that were affected by Typhoon Frank. He also
discussed the intervention measures that government will implement
over the next two to three months to offset the billion-peso losses
inflicted by the storm on the agriculture and fisheries sector.
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