Zamboanga fishers gear up for new ‘nautical highway’

DAPITAN CITY – Aquaculture entrepreneurs and fish processors of Zamboanga del Norte, backed up by their local officials, are lining up various programs to upgrade the province’s multi-million peso fishing industry and to take advantage of the opportunities being offered by the newly-inaugurated Strong Republic Nautical Highway.

In this historic city, considered the gateway to the south and where the new route from Mindanao starts up all the way to Batangas in Luzon, local fish farm operators are requesting the government to install a contact freezer, ice plant and cold storage facilities in their area in anticipation of brisk processed fish business ahead.

They have sought assistance from the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, claiming the required post-harvest facilities should help preserve freshness of their aquaculture products destined for Luzon, Visayas and even overseas, Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo said.

Dapitan City Mayor Rudolf Carreon Jr., himself a large milk-fish (bangus) and prawn producer, told PAJ News and Features that the city’s lone and outmoded contact freezer, with a five-ton-per-day capacity, had broken down months ago and needed to be refurbished. Rather than repair it, he has proposed to PFDA the purchase of a more modern one, which may cost P5 million.

"A contact freezer is necessary for our aquaculture products to reach new markets and maintain existing ones" Carreon, who operates about 1,500 hectares of bangus farms, said. "With it, we can increase our deboned milkfish output and even ship them as far as Malaysia, aside from sending them to our traditional markets like Manila, Cebu, Iligan and Cagayan de Oro," he added.

Santiago Martinez, PFDA manager for the Zamboanga fishport in Sangali, pointed out that while the mayor’s request for a freezer and ice plant was reasonable, fish farmers, the local government, and the fisheries agency would still need to pool their resources for the acquisition of cold storage facilities and reefer van needed to transport the frozen fish to the Visayas up to Luzon.

Funds to buy these capital equipment are not immediately available because government is in a tight financial squeeze. Still, local fishery officials and industry players consider the lack of money a temporary setback.

They expressed optimism that Zamboanga, in the long run, stands to benefit from the opportunities offered by the new nautical route because it has vast fish production areas and fish processing enterprises run by entrepreneurs with strong sense of business and politics.

Aside from Carreon, the Dimaporos and Marianos are the acknowledged big players in the region’s fish farming industry, with the Dimaporos alone reportedly operating about 3,000 hectares of aquaculture farm in Zamboanga del Sur and Panguil bay.

Zamboanga is also host to some of the country’s largest sardine and makerel canneries while capital city Dipolog is noted for bottled herrings, particularly the Montaño spanish style sardines.

All told, the nautical highway, when fully established, will bring tremendous business opportunities for southern Philippine-based agriculture and fishery entrepreneurs and promote inter-island farm trade, Lorenzo said.

The new route features roll on — roll off (Roro) ferry and a system of port terminals for buses and vessels that pass through Oriental Mindoro, Panay, Negros and Mindanao. It should make travel within the western portion of the archipelago faster and cheaper, government claimed.

Inaugurated three weeks ago by a caravan led by President Arroyo herself, the nautical route hopes to cut by about eight hours the normally 28-hour travel time from Luzon to Mindanao via the Pan-Philippine highway which passes through Bicol, Samar, Leyte down to Surigao.

There has yet been no shipping line plying the Roxas, Oriental Mindoro-Caticlan segment of the new route although the Department of Transportation and Communications, through its maritime authority, is opening new franchises to interested applicants.

Philtranco, which holds a land transport franchise for the Pan-Philippine highway, will likely get the first crack at the new nautical route once government, the company, and other stakeholders including shipping firms, agree on fare price issues, port handling fees, stevedoring costs, and other concerns. — PAJ News and Features