Security near Lagundi Reef needs boost

CEBU, Philippines - Talisay City Councilor Antonio Bacaltos Jr. wants the city government to beef up security at the Lagundi Reef, an almost three-hectare marine protected area (MPA) in Barangay Poblacion.

Bacaltos, chairman of the Committee of Environmental Protection, Wildlife Ecology and Natural Resources Management, is asking Mayor Johnny Delos Reyes to construct a guardhouse in the vicinity of the reef to protect it from illegal fishing activities.

It can be recalled that in March 2009, a Chinese cargo ship MV Majuro, ran aground on this underwater garden where several corals were destroyed. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources later found out that some endangered marine species were killed in the incident.

The lack of marine buoys around the MPA, which could have warned all vessels coming to and from the neighboring port area in Cebu City, was blamed for what happened.

In 2007, the city government had installed floaters and four floating guardhouses in Lagundi, but the former were reportedly stolen by local fishers while the guardhouses were destroyed during that year's storm. They were not replaced.

"Building a guardhouse within the vicinity of the reef will certainly be deterrent to any would-be illegal activities within the fish sanctuary," Bacaltos said.    

Bacaltos pointed out that protecting and preserving the city's natural resources are mandated duties of the local government unit.

He added that the Lagundi Reef used to be considered by divers as "fortunate" to have escaped most forms of the damage, unlike its sisters - the Makatol Reef in Barangay Tangke and the Pungaton Reef in Barangay Pooc, both in Talisay City - which are already in wreckage.

It was then city councilor Shirley Belleza, being the head of the tourism committee, who spearheaded the rehabilitation of the Lagundi Reef.

In October 2007, over a year since the rehabilitation activities had started, the city government, in a grand ceremony attended by top honchos in the diving industry and the government, launched to the public the said MPA, which was dubbed by professional divers "an underwater garden" for its healthy and various types of corals.

A city ordinance was then passed setting dive fees and other charges for the use of the Lagundi Reef.  (FREEMAN)