By HENRY EMPEÑO | August 21, 2023

MASINLOC, Zambales — After a protracted legal battle seen as a David versus Goliath fight, local fishermen from this town finally received compensation for their payao or fish aggregating device that a Hong Kong-based cargo ship ran over early this year.

Leonardo Cuaresma, chairman of the New Masinloc Fishermen’s Association (NMFA), which owned the destroyed payao, said the operator of HC Glory settled out of court and paid them P500,000 last week.

“They first offered P350,000 but then raised it to P500,000 when we offered to withdraw the case from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial board). Our members have agreed to accept the offer because we also lose if we prolong the issue,” Cuaresma said.

The fishers’ group initially sought a total of P900,000 in damages from HC Glory, a bulk carrier operated by the Hong Kong Haichang Holdings Group, Ltd.: P150,000 for the destroyed payao; P360,000 in unrealized income from the scheduled payao harvest; and P390,000 for income from hook-and-line fishing by the 36 NMFA members that was lost when their payao was destroyed.

They filed the damage claim with the Sanggunian last February after being assured of legal help by Governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

HC Glory was about to deliver a cargo of fuel to the coal-fired power plant here when it ran over NMFA’s fishing devise anchored some 12 kilometers offshore. The coal plant is owned and operated by the Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMC Global Power Holdings Corp.

Cuaresma said the payment from HC Glory was delivered by a representative from another company because Hong Kong Haichang Holdings Group’s own ship agent was declared persona non grata in Zambales for failing to appear during hearings conducted by the provincial board.

The payment from HC Glory was the third financial windfall that the local fishers received following the loss of their payao early this year. The group received on March 3 a P150,000 fund from Zambales Second District Representative Doris Maniquiz for them to build and install a new payao.

Then on June 12, NMFA members received a pledge of P909,000 from the SMCGP Philippines Power Foundation, Inc. for the installation and maintenance of fish aggregating devices in waters off Masinloc. Cuaresma said they received the fund on August 10.

Cuaresma said his group had made good use of the money they received, with the P150,000 livelihood assistance from Maniquiz and some money taken on credit going for the construction of three more payao units. From these new payaos, the group had harvested fish twice, earning P53,000 from the first harvest and P23,000 from the second.

He added that with the P500,000 payment from HC Glory, the group released a P1,500 bonus and a 25-kilo sack of rice to each member, as well as paid for the wages of members who built a smokehouse to make tinapa (smoked fish), a project that would also involve their womenfolk.

The payao fund from the SMCGP Foundation, meanwhile, is still intact in the bank and will be used for future projects, Cuaresma said. 