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City Government of Calbayog headed by Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento, won first place in the League of Cities of
the Philippines (LCP) Best
Practices Competition besting 85 other entries.
The competition was held to showcase the Best Service Programs
conceived and put to practice by various local government units in the
country. The winners were announced last month at the Hyatt Regency
Hotel, Manila, Philippines. The entries were
judged according to uniqueness, replicability by other LGUs, impact to
the community and the method of presentation.
Calbayog's winning entry was a service program entitled "Coastal
Zoning-Delineating Waters for Commercial and Marginal Fishermen".
The Program set in place mechanisms for the delineation of
city/municipal waters and providing specific area for fishing by
commercial and marginal fishermen. This was conceived in response to
the problems of illegal fishing and poverty faced by the City.
Calbayog City is basically an agricultural city with fish
and other fishery products as one of its primary commodities. Though it
has a coastline of 53 kms and a total fishing ground area of 1,200
square
miles from where most of its 3,364 fisherfolks in 35 coastal barangays
get their catch, the income of the local marginal fishermen has never
been enough to meet their daily needs. Aggravating the situation was
some 800 to 1000 commercial fishermen engaged in fishing activities in
the coastal waters of Western Samar depriving the local marginal
fishermen from profitable livelihood.
Notwithstanding R.A 8550 known as the Municipal Waters Law which bans
commercial fishing within 15 kilometers of a locality's coastline,
encroachment of commercial fishing vessels has always been a daily
occurence. The City of Calbayog is faced with a unique problem having a
neighbor island municipality located only 13.5 kilometers away.
Recognizing territorial boundaries as an issue, Mayor Sarmiento
initiated dialogues with neighboring mayors inviting commercial and
municipal fishermen and agreed to a compromise reducing the limit from
15 kilometers to 8 kilometers periphery and establishing a fishing
highway in the area. Then Mayor Sarmiento decided to divide the city's
coastal fishing area into several clustered zones delegating the
function of guarding and monitoring of activities to the fisherfolks of
respective clustered barangays. The city shouldered half the cost of
handheld radios needed by the clusters for their operation while the
remaining part was shouldered by barangay funds. Speed boats will be
acquired later as resources become available.
Among the positive results of the project are:
• Less occurence and for a longer period, absence of dynamite
fishing in the area
• Increase in fish catch and
income of marginal farmers
• Establishment of a
communications network for guarding and monitoring of activities among
neighboring municipalities
• Citing of best
quality/variety of fish
• Protection of fish
sanctuary
• Decrease of illegal logging activities
since illegal loggers went back to fishing
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