Mussel growers go ‘planking’

Even fishermen are into “planking.”

On Monday, some 40 “tahong” (mussel) growers and vendors from the fishing community of Barangay (village) Maliksi III in Bacoor town in Cavite lay face down on their boats and on solid rocks along the coast of the Manila Bay to air their grievances against fees being collected by the municipal government.

“It’s a bit painful on the belly,” said Myrna Candinato, 56, a mussel grower and leader of Alyansa ng mga Magdaragat ng Bacoor, Cavite (Alyansa).

The group has 92 mussel growers in Barangays Maliksi, Talaba and Sineguelasan as members. It is an affiliate of the militant Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas.

But what was even “more painful,” Candinato said by phone interview, were the fees the local government collects from them. In April, the municipality implemented Ordinance No. 25, which regulates the farming of oysters and mussels.

The law imposes an annual fee of 50 centavos per square meter on the mussel growers. Each grower maintains structures with areas of 2,500 sq m to a hectare in the Manila Bay.

“We are not totally against the collection of fees but we are asking the mayor to reduce it to 25 centavos instead, if not, to impose a moratorium,” Candinato said.

Mayor Strike Revilla said the fee does not burden the fisherfolk and in fact protects them from getting evicted from the coastal areas after the Supreme Court ordered the demolition of all illegal fishing structures in the bay.