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BARANGAY ESPAÑA, Sibuyan Island: Local Filipino fisherman Robert
Naiya looks out across the still waters toward the bow of the
ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars and asked: “What about us?”
“We should be out fishing today,” he said,
but a government ban has meant that Naiya and his friends just sit
on their colorful boats that dot the beach, talking and wondering
what the future holds.
The near 24,000-ton passenger ferry capsized
during Typhoon Frank on June 21 with more than 850 people on board
in this picturesque bay on the south coast of Sibuyan Island in the
central Philippines.
There were fewer than 60 survivors.
While lamenting the huge loss of life, Naiya
feels he and those living in this coastal town and others like it
are the forgotten victims of the tragedy.
The government suspended all diving operations
to recover bodies inside the vessel and banned fishing around the
island on Friday after it was revealed the ferry was carrying a
highly toxic pesticide.
The crescent-shaped island has one of the
country’s most diverse marine ecosystems. Should the chemicals
leak into its pristine waters the impact on local marine life would
be devastating, according to marine biologists.
With their houses devastated by the typhoon and
their livelihoods on the line, people such as Naiya are being forced
to beg for food from relatives to feed their families.
“I have four hungry children,” he told
Agence France-Presse.
“We have no rice, no money. Now we can’t
even go out to sea to fish. That’s all we have got. We are a poor
people.”
“Aid from the government has been slow,”
Naiya said as he puts his blue motorized boat into a dry dock in
España, a small fishing village.
Health officials are now conducting tests on
samples taken from the area, and while initial results showed no
contamination, experts are taking no chances.
But in the meantime, already poor fishermen are
wondering what will happen to them. “What about us?” the
50-year-old Naiya asked.
“What about the fishermen of Sibuyan?”
“The sea is all we know. We have been
fishermen all our lives. How will we live?”
The local village chief, Donato Royo, said most
of the 600 families living here rely on the Sibuyan Sea for their
livelihood.
“Our livelihood has been paralyzed by this
ferry,” he said, as he appealed for aid from the government.
“Our children’s main staple is rice and
fish. Rice is in short supply because of the typhoon and now the
government has taken away our right to fish.”
Marine biologist Emmanuel Asis, the provincial
fisheries officer, said there has not been any clear evidence of
contamination, but if the pesticide should get into the water the
impact would be devastating to local marine life.
“It could kill fish, kill the corals and lead
to the degeneration of the water quality here.”
He said he understands the plight of the
fishermen, but “sometimes we have to sacrifice for the greater
good.”
“We should not panic,” he said, adding that
he believes the problem could be dealt with swiftly once salvage
crews pinpoint the cargo’s exact location and take it out of the
sea.
Defense Secretary Guilberto Teodoro, who flew
into the tiny island on Saturday to supervise the relief operation,
said a 15-man crew of foreign and local experts would shortly make a
detailed inspection of the ferry.
“This is a highly complex operation,” he
told reporters. “The first order of business is to get the
hazardous material out of the water.”
In the meantime, he said the national government
was aware of the plight of local residents and intends to fly in
tons of relief goods, including canned food to provide an
alternative diet for the islanders.
For local residents such as Nayia, the food will
be welcome but the big question will be the future and when they can
get their boats back into the water.
-- AFP
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