Sorsogon mayor: Red tide keeping fishermen ashore

After typhoons, red tide toxins in Sorsogon Bay have kept many fishermen in Sorsogon province out of the ocean and reduced them to a life of virtual begging, local officials lamented Thursday. Edwin Hamor, mayor of Casiguran town in Sorsogon, said the destruction caused by the powerful typhoons Reming and Milenyo was worsened by the red time problem. "These days has been doubly difficult for fishermen in Sorsogon. They lost their homes to typhoons, and now they have no food. The people in the province have nothing to eat and nowhere to go," Hamor said in Filipino during an interview on dzRH radio Thursday. Citing reports reaching him, Hamor said at least nine coastal villages in the province were "heavily affected," though he did not name the villages. He added that many children in the areas, most of them from fishermen's families, were forced to stop their schooling because of poverty and hunger. The mayor said that while the local government in Casiguran town gives lugaw (rice porridge) to local fishermen in evacuation centers on a weekly basis, it is not enough. The hunger problem in the area was highlighted Tuesday after a five-year-old boy died while his father and three siblings were in critical condition after they ate shellfish believed contaminated by red tide in Sorsogon. The boy, identified as Caboy Laguerta, 5, succumbed to food poisoning at the Sorsogon Provincial Hospital while his father and three siblings were in critical condition there. "Poverty forced them to gather and eat shellfish despite an existing warning," Hamor said. It was the second time that contaminated shellfish downed a family after typhoon Milenyo hit Bicol and nearby regions. Hamor said the boy and his family were from Lungib village in Casiguran town, one of the areas hit hard by Milenyo last September. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) imposed a shellfish ban at several areas, including Sorsogon Bay, after Milenyo lashed the country.-GMANews.TV