Nature builds things that are antifragile. In the case of evolution, nature uses disorder to grow stronger. Occasional starvation or going to the gym also makes you stronger, because you subject your body to stressors and gain from them.
— Lebanese-American essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb
IT was in 2021 when President Rodrigo Duterte said that while it’s easy to promise an end to hunger, the path to fulfilling it was not paved like an expressway. And this year, after signing Executive Order No. 101 that created the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger (IATF-ZH), he had explicit orders to address the reasons people go hungry. He asked the IATF–ZH to work on a National Food Policy (NFP) as he recognized that hunger, and other problems, continued to be serious concerns of most Filipinos.
And even as the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed in late 2019 (Q4) that 8.8 percent—or 2.1 million—of households experienced hunger while 7.3 percent and 1.5 percent had moderate and severe hunger
Meanwhile, near his home Tata Joven is taking apart his six-meter-long fishing boat to dock it in a harbor as he cannot bear the rising cost of fuel since the increase in fuel costs went haywire due to the hike in global oil prices due in part to the ongoing Ukraine war.
The fishing harbor near his home in Pier 2 Lambatan in Navotas City, usually bustling with commercial activities, wears an empty look in peak season except for the few men still catching fish.
Joven, 43, will be storing the diesel engine and fishing equipment at home, overturning the boat and placing it on the sandy shore where many other boats are already placed.
“We are bitterly disappointed that we could not earn enough money to put food on the table while we are in the fishing season,” the skilled fisherman lamented despite his tanned skin which is a sure sign he had been catching fish since he had been a young adult.
But this year he made only one trip and incurred a loss of 800 pesos (US$44) on fuel alone.
Joven cited how the price of auto diesel had shot up to more than PhP80 per liter from PhP55 early this year, while the prices of octane petrol and kerosene went up to PhP87 and PhP71 respectively.
“The hike in fuel prices imposes a heavy burden on low-income families like us and deprives us of our daily food,” he complained bitterly, adding that the prices of all essential goods too had gone up as a result.
Last year, Joven and two of his neighbors daily caught some 100 kilograms of herrings and anchovies in the northern parts of Manila Bay and sold the fish for 40 to 42 pesos per kilogram. He earned about 2,000 pesos after paying the two workers and the fuel costs.
To add to Joven’s woes, this year traders are buying herrings and anchovies for 30 pesos per kilogram as local fish sauce factories have shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic raging through the country. His catch has been mostly going into fish sauce production.
Joven, whose wife works as a seamstress at home, now plans to look for manual jobs in Bulacan to support their two children.
His Lambatan commune is home to several fishermen, most of whom have stopped fishing and are looking for other means of earning a living.
Johnny, 54, a fishing boat owner from a nearby district, said he landed good catches this season but still made losses. He owes 15,000 pesos to a fuel seller while being forced to borrow money to buy food for his family.
He started working at a construction site and earns PhP500 a day. “I do not have a clue when I can pay off my debts if the pandemic continues and fuel prices do not drop,” he said.
Nenette, a ninth-grader, said she started working at an onion store at the Divisoria Public Market last week after her father lost his job.Many children from fishing communities have dropped out of school and are working to support their families.
“I earn PhP300 a day to buy food for my family,” she said, adding that four other children too were employed in the shop.
These are the hardships that most Filipinos have to bear during this time of crisis when the impact of the lockdowns, restrictions and spreading Cobid-19 disease has gravely hampered the livelihood of millions of Filipinos.
In ending, Joven said that government should control fuel prices to secure the livelihoods of local fishermen, which had been badly affected since February.
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