PRESIDENT Arroyo announced Thursday that the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has pledged $80 million in loans
for government priority projects in the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), including Tawi-tawi, the poorest
province in the country.
The President enlisted the help of her
daughter, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) policy officer for the Coral
Triangle program Lourdes Evangeline "Luli" Arroyo in uplifting
the lives Tawi-Tawi residents. Tawi-Tawi is situated right in
the middle of the Coral Triangle.
The President unveiled the Tawi-Tawi Modified
Mariculture Development Project which she said would benefit
from the new loan from KSA.
The $80 million would be in addition to the
$20 million loan that the Saudi government extended earlier to
the ARMM.
She directed the Department of Agriculture
and the Commission on Higher Education to submit feasibility
studies and the details on the programs for the fourth phase,
and sustainability of the mariculture project and the provision
of more scholarship grants in agriculture and fisheries courses
that would benefit the people of Tawi-Tawi.
"I will ask her (Luli) to help you to also
prepare the proposal for the sustainable fisheries in the ARMM
that we can submit for funding under the Saudi Fund," the
President said.
Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez
said that asking the presidential daughter for help in the
preparation of the plans and study for the KSA loans does not
make her a presidential adviser.
Arroyo said the mariculture project would
produce high-value fish species like groupers or lapu-lapu which
in a year's time could come up with about 500 kilos valued at
P100 million. She said the mariculture project could also be
used for backyard culture of abalone, sea urchin, and pearls.
The President awarded a P2 million check for
the scholarship program of the Institute of Fisheries and Marine
Resources, and distributed various fishing paraphernalia,
including 100 6.5-horsepower engines, 10 units of fish finders,
and 10 units of global positioning system (GPS) for the 10
fishermen's associations in the province.
Meanwhile, the national fisherfolk alliance
Kilusang Mangingisda (KM) and Tambuyog Resource Center scored
the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) for
promoting marine culture and aquaculture projects nationwide
instead of strengthening small fishing communities in the
country.
The fisherfolk movement said the government's
plan to implement a foreign-funded anti-poverty aquaculture
program would divert funds for poverty reduction into
infrastructure projects which the small fisherfolks would hardly
benefit from.
The group said aquaculture and marine culture
have posed serious environmental and occupational concerns, that
unconsumed feeds become pollutants and the supposed job
generation had not helped the fisheries sector at all.
KM said that aquaculture and mariculture
combined only managed to employ 6 percent of small fishermen
thrice a year at two days per season, with 94 percent of the
jobs going to technical experts.
The group said even the women who used to eke out a
livelihood by gathering cowrie shells for mixing with feeds, and
lobster spawn for sale to fishpond owners had also been
sidelined. - Jocelyn Montemayor and Randy Nobleza
