Filtered By: Topstories
News

For Governor Vi, a job that calls for Darna-like powers


From their perch on the windswept ridge of Tagaytay, tourists for years reveled in awe-inspiring views of Taal Lake without knowing the messy truth.

Governor Vilma Santos-Recto is leading a crackdown on powerful business forces on Taal Lake. Disney Carreon
What the distant gawkers often couldn’t see were the squalid checkerboards of floating fish cages that were spreading pollution with excess feeds. Regular fish kills indicated a dying lake. Enter a movie-star governor who once played Darna. Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto didn’t exactly swoop down from the ridge and fling the fish cages to another planet. But considering the low expectations these days of local officials, Recto performed feats almost Darna-like. First, she listened to scientists and lake community leaders who were alarmed by the slow death of a vital resource and the muddy taste of some lake-caught fish. Then Recto took charge, devoting government funds and key personnel and staking her own reputation on what was not initially a popular undertaking. Thousands living in several lakeside towns were dependent on the fish-cage industry for their livelihoods. Fish cage owners fueled a thriving web of local government corruption. Moreover, some raised the specter of hunger if fish cages were reduced. Much of the tilapia and bangus supply in Metro Manila come from Taal Lake. “We had been waiting for a long time for the government to look after our problems and support our cause," said Milagros Chavez, chair of the Kilusan ng Maliliit na Mga Mangingisda sa Lawa ng Taal (KMMLT), a Taal Lake people’s organization. Chavez added that only Recto showed any political will. “If you have good intentions, you won’t be afraid (to implement the law)," Recto told GMANews.TV in an interview. “My intentions are clear. In the first place, they (fish cages) are illegal, that’s why you have to remove them even if you don’t want to." She revealed that pressure was coming from businessmen and their political patrons to go slow on her cage dismantling campaign. “What can I do? Maybe they cannot appreciate it now. But if they see how beautiful the lake has become again - there was no fish kill this year, fish catches were abundant - they will appreciate it later on," Recto said. The lake basin encompasses three cities and 12 municipalities, so nothing less than a nearly province-wide effort could reverse the spread of fish cages and the lake’s destruction. The lake was declared a protected area in 1996, giving the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) the authority to enforce the law. A Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) led by the DENR finally produced rules and regulations for the use of the lake in 2007. When the government created the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS), all the fish cages became illegal and needed permits from the PAMB. But the PAMB didn’t have the resources or the will to enforce the rules, compelling the local governments to take action and the ex-Darna to take the lead. According to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), there were over 12,000 fish cages in Taal Lake before the Recto-led dismantling effort, which was way beyond its carrying capacity of 6,000 fish cages.
A task force has already dismantled over 5000 fish cages on Taal Lake. Arvel Malubag
But instead of cracking down, municipal governments, especially in Talisay, Laurel, Agoncillo, and San Nicolas towns, allowed them to increase, intensifying the deterioration of the lake. Reacting to reports of vanishing endemic species like tawilis and the declining quality of both the water and the fish, Recto organized a multisectoral Task Force chaired by former mayor Victor Reyes and given teeth by lake patrols manned by armed guards. Last month, Task Force Taal Lake reported that they had already removed 5,131 illegal fish cages in the lake since they started their dismantling operations in July 2008, making its target of retaining 6000 licensed cages this year a real possibility. To date, it is the most comprehensive protection effort ever applied on Taal Lake. “Governor Recto has lakas-loob because she realizes the importance of the lake," said Atty. Asis Perez, an environmental lawyer and operations director of Tanggol Kalikasan, an NGO active in the Taal task force. “She also has political capital to spare because she is very popular." Recto is running for governor again in a repeat contest against her 2007 opponent and then-incumbent Armando Sanchez, whom she defeated by more than 125,000 votes. Her crackdown on fish cages may have lost her the votes of local residents thrown out of work. But the move has been popular among fisherfolk who have long complained about the pollution and the cages blocking navigational lanes in their traditional fishing waters. The impact is already being felt. Since the cages were removed, local fishermen are claiming that the lake’s condition has already improved and fish catches are becoming abundant. “Before, it was really difficult for us to fish. Sometimes, when we go out and fish, we can only catch up to two kilos or even none. But now, we can already catch five kilos or more," said 47-year-old fisher Janina Cosme, who has been living along the lake since 1978. A 2009 study of the National Fisheries Biological Center on the lake bears her out. The study was done after the dismantling of over 5000 cages said that during the year, a small-scale fisherman’s gillnet had an average daily fish catch of 6.02 kilos, and their catches range from 0.58 to 20 kilos, a sharp rise from the two kilos a day many fishermen were reporting. Mariz Mutia, chief of fhe National Fisheries Biological Center, said dismantling illegal cages helped increase the fish catch in the lake because of the improvements in water quality from reduced pollution. "If the water is polluted, the production of natural food will be affected and the fish will die. Polluted waters produce toxic substances like nitrogen, which is harmful for the fish," Mutia said. Cosme said fewer cages give fishers more space for their boats to navigate around the lake and lay down their gill nets to catch fish. “Before, it was very hard for us to fish because the distance of cages from the shoreline was only 50 meters and the cage guards prohibit us from fishing. But now, it is already 100 meters and we can already fish freely, though still careful not to get near the cages," Cosme said. – HGS, GMANews.TV
LOADING CONTENT