Last Sunday’s news that a fisherman had been found dead and a companion was still missing after their motorized banca capsized off Camarines Sur during rough weather generated a feeling of déjà vu.
Almost exactly a year ago, nine fishermen from Pandan and Tabaco City who set out to fish vanished in the vast Pacific Ocean in adverse weather conditions, with authorities recovering only one decomposing body on the shore of Palumbanes island.
Like the ill-fated nine who cast off on New Year’s Day of 2025, the trio from San Andres town – Jose Cielo Sr., 57, Andy Almonte, 53, and Jomar dela Cruz, 47 – boarded their unregistered motorized banca at 11 AM of Jan, 2, 2026.
At the time, there was no Gale Warning issued by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) over the eastern seaboards of Southern Luzon.
It was only six hours later that the weather agency issued one that included the northern and eastern coasts of Catanduanes but not the area of the sea off Caramoan where the incident occurred.
The next Gale Warning issued at 5 AM of Jan. 3 expanded the coverage to include the coastal areas of Camarines Sur, including Caramoan, forecasting winds of 48 to 71 kilometers per hours and rough to very rough seas with wave heights of 3,1 to 5.5 meters.
The same warning, issued over the northern and eastern coasts of Catanduanes, stated that sea travel is risky for small seacrafts, including all motor bancas of any type or tonnage, with mariners of these types of vessels advised to remain in port or seek safe harbor.
Unfortunately, the advisory was too late for the San Andres fishermen, who had been trying to catch fish for their families throughout what must have been a harrowing night.
That Saturday morning, the body of Almonte was washed ashore in sitio Lipata, barangay Gogon in Caramoran, with a search party spotting Cielo floating face down off the same village at 10 AM of Jan. 5.
The lone survivor, dela Cruz, was fetched by San Andres MDRRMO personnel from Caramoan and was supposed to be reunited with his family Tuesday.
Given that the weather advisory is issued only twice daily, there was no way the LGU personnel could have warned local fishermen of dangerous sea conditions, especially when they are already at sea.
Even if the three fishermen from Divino Rostro and Belmonte managed to receive reports of the gale warning on their cellphones, if they carried them, the sea off Caramoan was not included in the advisory from 5 PM of Jan. 2 to 5 AM of Jan. 3 when the incident could have unfolded.
Apart from Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell service that allows smart phones to make or receive voice calls in the middle of the ocean, there is no reliable, and cheap, short-term forecast or communications technology that could reach fishermen out at sea.
What local authorities can do at this time is to join the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in ensuring that local fishermen are adequately warned against venturing out to sea during adverse weather, just as the Coast Guard Station Catanduanes did in the morning of Jan. 3.
Municipal LGUs should ensure that all fishermen and their bancas are registered under the Municipal Fisherfolk Registration System (FishR), a national program mainly designed to aid in fisheries management and biodiversity conservation measures.
Local leaders should take a step further by identifying the marginal (read: indigent) fisherfolk in the FishR system and distributing DSWD food packs or similar assistance for their families once adverse sea conditions persist for more than three days.
And in the long term, LGUs should abandon its “everybody happy” method of allocating DSWD food packs or rice assistance to every household, even to the obviously “can-afford” families, and make sure that only those identified vulnerable families receive aid.