Navotas fisher nabbed for dynamite possession

Navotas City sea marshals and the local police arrested a fisherman, suspected of engaging in illegal blast fishing, and seized from him several bottles of improvised dynamites and dynamite-making materials off Manila Bay Tuesday afternoon.

Senior Superintendent Eric Reyes, Navotas City police chief, said that Claro Raya, 39, a resident of Davila street, a coastal area in Navotas, yielded a total of 18 bottles of home-made dynamites, 13 blasting caps, 13 1.8 volts batteries, several dynamite fuses and a one liter plastic container filled with ammonium nitrate.

Raya’s fishing boat, F/B Judylyn, was impounded.

Reyes said that at around 3 p.m., Bantay Dagat personnel Alexander Gonzales and Mario Sevilla, assisted by Senior Police Officers 1 Enrique Matawaran and Jaime Malaca with Police Officer 2 Roberto Santillan, were on a routine sea patrol on a speedboat when they spotted Raya’s vessel off Manila Bay under the Navotas City jurisdiction. “We have earlier information that a fishing boat with body marking Judylyn is being used in illegal dynamite fishing,” Reyes told The STAR.

The sea marshals chased the fishing boat that stopped at a makeshift hut used by fishermen in gathering mussels.

The lawmen checked on the fishing vessel and found out that it was carrying several bottles of improvised dynamites. They discovered more explosive-making materials at Raya’s hut, Reyes said.

“We are still in the process of determining whether the fishing boat belonged to the arrested suspect or to somebody else. But one thing is definite, we will be filing proper charges against Raya,” Reyes said.

Reyes said the Navotas City government, in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, is intensifying its campaign against the destructive illegal blast fishing to protect Mother Nature and the “legitimate” fishermen.