Zambales fishers buck ‘partnership’ with China
DAY’S END As the sun sets in the coastline of Zambales in this photo taken last month, a fisherman prepares to head off to the sea off Barangay San Miguel in San Antonio town. Local fishers go on with their daily routines amid threats of harassment from China’s coast guard watching over their traditional fishing ground in Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. —JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT
SAN ANTONIO, ZAMBALES—Fishermen from Zambales province, who were direct victims of harassment in the West Philippine Sea by the Chinese coast guard, have vowed they would not accept any “partnership” agreement with the People’s Republic of China, a fishers group said.
“Even without the benefit of our scrutiny, we know that nothing beneficial for Filipino fishers could come out of China’s proposed partnership with local fishing villages,” said Bobby Roldan, a fisherman from the Zambales town of Masinloc and the vice chair for Luzon of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), in a statement on Saturday.
According to Roldan, fishermen in this province were witnesses to how Chinese seafarers abuse and plunder the resources in the West Philippine Sea. They were also constant victims of harassment in their own fishing grounds at the Panatag Shoal, locally called Bajo de Masinloc, where they were often driven away from by the Chinese coast guard.
Records from Pamalakaya showed that the livelihood of the majority of residents in the coastal towns of Zambales have been severely affected by the constant harassment from the Chinese coast guard and militia, making them lose about 70 percent of their potential income per fishing trip.
Before the Chinese started driving fishermen away from their usual fishing grounds in the Panatag Shoal, each trip by the groups of fishers here would fetch them around P100,000, according to Pamalakaya.
Fishermen’s struggles
Last Friday, former National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos said in a televised public briefing that the Philippine government was studying China’s proposal to establish a partnership agreement with Filipino fishing villages in the West Philippine Sea.
Carlos, who was replaced by former Interior Secretary Eduardo Año as national security adviser on Saturday, said this was among the things being studied to establish peace and resolution in the disputed waters following the visit of President Marcos to China earlier this month.
Joselito Marabe, the spokesperson for the Samahan ng Mangingisda ng Masinloc, said that some of the country’s leaders “continue to fail” in understanding the fishermen’s struggles, as “their decisions do not address the true aspirations of the Filipino fishermen.”
“Due to the harassment we experienced at the hands of the Chinese coast guard, many of us are still reluctant to go back to Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal), our traditional fishing ground,” said Marabe.
China, which has sweeping claims in nearly all of the West Philippine Sea, seized control of the shoal in 2012, prompting the country to seek the United Nations’ arbitration.
In 2016, the arbitral tribunal invalidated China’s claims, but China continues to ignore the ruling.
