Hear the Cry of the Poor & of the Dying Marine Life

Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Bay

No less than His Holiness Pope Francis said in Lau Datu Si for us to hear the cry of the poor and Mother Earth certainly includes the cry of the poor fishing communities and the fishery & marine life in the bays. Every time I see Macajalar Bay, I remember lines of a beautiful poem that begins with, “Rage, rage, rage, against the dying of the light . . .”  Deep inside, I feel the pain and the anger not because of the dying of the light but in the impending death of an ecosystem whose beauty is both awesome and humbling. Yes, the grandeur that is Macajalar Bay, from Sulawan Point in Laguindigan to Punta Gorda in Balingasag, speaks well for itself, but that same grandeur is fast disappearing as it undergoes progressive state of impairment and with it, the marginalization of the coastal populace. Unlike before when fish would jump into their “bancas,” fish now can hardly be caught.

Why? What are the fatal blows that are causing the death of what was once a mighty ecosystem?

The bay has been treated as a waste pit. First is industrial pollution. Chemical waste from industries and factories is just dumped in the bay. These wastes poison sea life and even enter the food chain. The bay is also a victim of soil erosion and massive siltation. What men do in the uplands affects life in the sea. Because trees were cut through massive illegal logging in the last 5 decades, hundreds of thousands of hectares in the uplands are already denuded and soil has been eroding destroyed mangroves and coral reefs. The massive illegal mining, open pit mining including hydraulics have worsened the condition of the bay.

The final death blow that is killing the bay silently is the chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides heavily being used in the surrounding plantations and farms which are washed from the soil into rivers and the bay. In the opening lines of the poem, “Charge of the Light Brigade,” there are “cannons at the left of them, cannons at the right of them, cannons facing them.” Such is true in Macajalar Bay, not cannons but vast plantations. Every day, these plantations apply chemicals at every stage: applying Nematicide during land preparation and phosphoric Acid (fungicide) during pre-planting.  Immediately after planting, they apply Durion and Ametryne. Tons and tons of chemical fertilizers are applied as basal then bombarding the growing crops with foliar fertilizer at 1,500 kgs. per hectare. Of the 200,000 hectares of plantations in Mindanao, about 48,000 hectares are surrounding Macajalar Bay, multiply these by 1,500 kgs. per hectare, it is like 100 trucks dumping chemicals every day in the Bay. Ultimately, these chemicals find their way into the bay and of course into our water table as these toxic chemicals are non-biodegradable.

These chemicals ingested by fish cause their sudden death, and if the fish survive with carcinogenic elements in them, these are bio-magnified and find their way into our bodies when we eat fish. Are you still wondering why many are dying of cancer In Cagayan de Oro? Indeed, these chemicals poison sea life and even enter food chains.

Many of our fisherfolk can attest to the fact that when it rains, many fish float dead in the rivers and the sea. Worse, we strongly suspect that the water table may be already contaminated by these toxic chemicals. No less than the former Regional Executive Director of the DENR, my best friend Dr. Raoul Geollegue claims that our drinking water may have already been contaminated. If that is so, then, we can aptly say, “Drink now, die later.” Following the precautionary principle, we in Task Force Macajalar, an Environmental Coalition for Peace, Justice, and Sustainability, have been clamoring that our water table be examined as the Cagay-anons may be drinking or bathing or using water for cooking which is already contaminated with these toxic chemicals. But until now, such a plea fell on deaf ears. One day, the people of Cagayan de Oro will wake up, and only then that such horrible reality be promptly checked or face the collective anger of the deceived people.

In Malaybalay, an ordinance was passed a decade or so ago, disallowing these plantations to expand because so much harm has already been done to ecological integrity. The Cagay-anons are still in deep slumber on this issue.

This time with a sense of urgency, let us hear the cry of the coastal communities from Laguindigan to Balingasag, as they are now living in hunger and extreme poverty.  As attested by them, the fishery life before had been so abundant that fish would just literally jump into their “bancas,” but today, even after hours of fishing, fish can hardly be caught and they can not fish for so long as it will mean wasting expensive fuel. Thus, they just go home early and the children will understand the bad news – no fish again, SO GUTOM NAMAN. What is even more horrible is that some of these fishing communities were so puzzled why they were being charged in court for staying in their respective coastal communities as their foreshore areas have been issued land titles by rich influential people. This is true in Misamis Oriental, in Molugan and in Alo, El Salvador. The fisherfolk were asking the DENR, WHY THESE FORESHORE AREAS had BEEN ISSUED LAND TITLE WHEN SUCH could be issued LAND TITLES AS THE FORESHORE AREAS had MORE THAN  50 years could be titled foreshore BEFORE UNDER WATER. THROUGH THE YEARS, THEY HAVE GATHERED STONES AND BUILT RESIDENTS TO MAKE THE FORESHORE LIVABLE. In Alo, the issued Title was nullified by the DENR but in Molugan, the residents are still being sued in Court by the daughter of a former Logger, Evelyn Roa Clavano. The fishing communities have already written the President of the Philippines to rectify such social wrongs. In Molugan, they were so aghast because the DENR and the BFAR had allowed GAISANO to build a big “BODEGA” within the bay that had destroyed the mangroves and coral reefs.

Indeed, there is so much veneration for the profit motive that has sacrificed the bay’s marine and fishery resources to the altar of greed and profit, at the expense of the poor fishing communities, now living in extreme poverty. NOW IT IS TIME TO HEAR THE CRY OF THE POOR AND THE MARINE LIFE.

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