Joecil Regala was 12 years old when he started working as a fisherman in Aroroy, Masbate province. He and his brothers Rogelio (43) and Darwin (40) practiced illegal fishing with dynamite from 1980 to 2016.
Joecil is 56 years old today.
All three are residents of Sitio Colorado Barangay Tigbao in Aroroy, a first-class municipality known for its gold mining.
“We did dynamite fishing to support our families,” Rogelio said. “We detonated on coral beds, which are the habitat of fish,” he added in Bicolano, the language spoken in the island province located at the crossroads of the Luzon and Visayas islands.
Each dynamite explosion damages, on average, two square meters of coral. “Everyone was doing it, so almost all the corals were destroyed.”
Rogelio knows firsthand the danger of explosives: his disfigured left hand is the result of an accidental explosion while assembling a piston, also known as improvised dynamite.
The brothers continue to venture into the sea. But now they assume the role of guards and protectors of municipal waters.
Regeneration
In 2017, the Government of Aroroy and Filminera Resources Corporation began hiring local fishermen to become guardians of the sea, more commonly called sea guard.
“As sea guardwe do not allow any fishermen to enter and catch fish within the declared marine protected area,” Joecil said.
Six years without fishing, he says, have done wonders.
“The fish are back. The corals are also reviving. The AMP is now home to different marine species”, says Joecil.
Sea turtles, lobsters, giant clams and other creatures thrive in the Colorada Point Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Barangay Tigbao.
For Joecil, with four children, and Rogelio and Darwin, with two each, protecting the seas can be a legacy of wealth for their descendants.
There are six guardians of the sea of Tigbao people. Before there were seven, but the oldest chose to retire. They monitor 129 hectares of protected marine area. Your mission is to recover the fish and revive the corals. They patrol the sea six times a day, for a daily wage of 365 pesos ($6.5), says Darwin.
It is, by Masbate standards, a viable livelihood.
reef balls
Within the MPA there are 3,993 reef balls planted with 52,000 coral fragments. The project was promoted by another mining company, the Philippine Gold Processing & Refining Corporation (PGPRC).
Made from a special, marine-friendly concrete, the reef balls are used to create habitats for fish and other marine life. They are made in different sizes to better adapt to the type of natural reef at Colorada Point, in the town of Tigbao, explains Lovelle Cariaga, Filminera’s environmental manager and a Masbate resident.
The AMP site is a corridor for boats heading to towns and villages. The sea guard they take turns, patrolling 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Cariaga said that the corporation and its sister company, PGPRC, work with the local government to guarantee the best technology for the rehabilitation of the reefs.
The locals have been working since 2017 with the American non-profit organization Reef Ball Foundation, which helps in the production of reef balls.
Cariaga said that they will deploy more than 400 reef balls in the AMP in May to regenerate more coral fragments.
“Reef restoration is essential for the long-term sustainability of the marine ecosystem and to help mitigate the impact of climate change, as well as provide livelihoods for local fishermen,” said Cariaga.
a troubled past
It sounds a bit ironic that gold miners are today helping to finance a marine environmental program in Masbate.
The regional director of PSA Cynthia Perdiz told Rappler that the clearing of mangroves and the death of coral reefs are the main reasons for the decline of the fishing industry in the Bicol region. Toxic waste from the land can kill coral reefs.
Partridge cited the 2005 toxic spill from the Rapu-Rapu mine, which remains the country’s worst mining disaster following the passage of the 1995 Philippine Mining Act.
Lafayette, which owns Rapu-Rapu, was the first mining company allowed to operate by the Philippine government after the law was enacted. At that time, it was considered a model of responsible and sustainable mining.
But Lafayette released cyanide that poisoned the land and the sea. He caused a massive fish kill that affected the livelihoods of the coastal communities of Albay and Sorsogon.
In the past, Filminera faced several complaints for alleged environmental destruction that affected the municipalities of Aroroy and Baleno.
In 2017, the Court of Appeals dismissed a petition by the environmental group Ang Aroroy Ay Alagan Incorporated seeking a restraining order. nature (in the Philippines, legal protection of the constitutional right to live in a healthy environment), and an environmental protection order against the Filminera Resources Corporation gold mine in Aroroy. However, the Supreme Court upheld the Court’s ruling the following year.
Former Environment Secretary Gina López did not include Filminera in the closure or suspension order that listed 28 mining operations throughout the country. Filminera operates on 13,000 hectares. It is the largest gold mine operator in the Philippines.
Another company involved in marine environmental programs is Phil Gold, one of the main promoters of the declaration of Colorada Point as a marine protected area. It has expanded the mangrove planting program to provide additional livelihoods for the coastal community of Port Barrera.
This story was originally published in the Philippine media Rappler, and is republished within the Program of the Human Journalism Networksupported by the ICFJ,International Center for Journalists.
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