By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/Philippine News Agency
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The 900 marginalized fisherfolk identified by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) as recipients of fiberglass boats could receive the boats by June or July once their engines are delivered by the supplier.
Alletth Gayatin, Senior Aquaculturist of the Office of Provincial Agriculture (OPA), said in an interview Wednesday that they are just waiting for the engines of the 900 fiberglass boats to be completely delivered and inspected by the BFAR personnel.
“During the ceremonial turnover of the fiberglass boats, BFAR only gave out certificates of ownership to the beneficiaries with the boat engines still have to be delivered,” Gayatin said.
Gayatin said that the fiberglass boats that were built right in San Jose de Buenavista have all been finished.
“The boats are now finished except their engines,” Gayatin said.
A ceremonial turnover of the fiberglass boats led by BFAR Regional Director Remia A. Aparri with some other officials was held last March 28 at the Provincial Engineering Office in San Jose de Buenavista.
Aparri during the ceremonial turnover said fiberglass boats were given to ensure sustainable development of the fishery sector in the province.
The boats were funded under the FB Pagbabago program of BFAR with an amount of PHP50,000 to PHP55,000 each.
FB Pagbabago is a livelihood intervention, which aims to uplift the economic status of Filipino fisherfolk through the provision of disaster-resilient fishing boats and resource-appropriate fishing gears, while at the same time empowering the fisherfolk and their families to become responsible resource users.
Each unit of the fiberglass boat will have two fisherfolk recipients to make sure that they would be able to maintain well their unit and will not sell it.
Beneficiary Pedro Tuazon, 29, who will be sharing his boat with his brother Edmund Tuazon, said in an interview that he is really looking forward to the day when the boats will be distributed because it will be a big help to their fishing livelihood.
“My brother and I are just working as crew of a boat owner and so we are not really getting a big share out of our fish catch,” he said.
He added that it would really have a big impact to their livelihood if they own the boat and not just wait for their share from the boat owner.
Meanwhile, Gayatin said that they will just inform the beneficiaries when they could really distribute the boats to them.
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