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MUNICIPAL fishermen in Cebu who severely suffered
economic dislocation because of the oil and gas
exploration at the Tañon Strait may not get any
compensation, a nongovernment fisheries organization
warned.
The
Tambuyog Development Center said the government is
moving at a “snail pace” to assist affected fishermen
process their claims for just compensation for a fishing
ban having been imposed during the 60-day oil
exploration, which will end in the middle of January.
The oil
exploration is conducted jointly by the Department of
Energy (DOE) and the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (Japex).
It
started on November 15 and should end by mid-January.
The fishing ban covers a 7-kilometer radius from the
oil-drilling site located in the northern portion of
Tañon Strait.
About
1,500 fishers who are affected by the ban come from the
towns of Pinamungajan and Aloguinsan in Cebu.
Arsenio
Tanchuling, executive director of Tambuyog, said the
filing of compensatory claims is already hampered by
questionable procedures, such as limiting the period for
filing a claim to “within one week from initial
knowledge or occurrence of the event complained of.”
Tanchuling noted that the filing of claims also involves
documentary requirements that are a burden to local
fishermen, most of whom have not finished grade school.
“These
requirements include evidence that one is a registered
fisher in the affected area, evidence of ownership or
stewardship and location of properties, such as fishing
boats and fishing gears, and the nature and extent of
damages based on the claimant’s own assessment,” he
explained.
Tanchuling disclosed that these procedures and
requirements in filing compensatory claims are found in
the “Implementing Guidelines on the Creation of the
Multipartite Monitoring Team, Environmental Monitoring
Fund and Environmental Guarantee Fund.”
He said
this set of guidelines was approved in December by the
DOE, Japex, the Protected Area Management Board of Tañon
Strait and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources, as well as other parties.
Tanchuling pointed out that the government should have
been able to gather the number and identities of
fishermen using the restricted area and to teach them
how to prepare the documentary evidence before the oil
exploration had reached its halfway point.
“It is
the duty of the government to provide the fishers with
assistance to ensure that they are able to submit
credible claims and to get just compensation for actual
economic losses during the fishing ban. Or better yet,
it was their duty not to have put too many requirements
on the filing of claims, some of which are even
questionable,” he said.
Tanchuling noted that while his organization is a member
of a task force working to get the fishermen
compensated, its output is only recommendatory. |
