ILOILO CITY - - The boat captain and crew of steel-hulled Super Haulboat F/B Seagull III from Cebu City apprehended last Friday in the waters of Carles, Iloilo are facing charges for violating the Fisheries Code and Fishery Administrative Order, a provincial government official said on Monday.
In a media interview, Provincial Administrator Raul Banias, who also heads the Provincial Bantay Dagat Task Force (PBDTF), said that criminal charges were already filed over the weekend before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office here.
He added that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Western Visayas, whose personnel also join the task force during the apprehension, filed administrative charge against the fishermen before its Adjudication Committee.
The joint team of the PBDTF and BFAR-6, led by Police Officer I Hendrick Bunday and Marvin Frech Saturnino, caught the boat captain and 12 crew of the fishing vessel using the prohibited Danish seine nets on June 1 in the waters off the village of Asluman, Gigantes island in Carles town.
Banias said that the boat captain is still currently detained at Carles Municipal Police Station.
The police station is yet to release the names of the fishermen.
Banias said the boat they used was impounded, as well as their unauthorized fishing gears, in the impounding area at the fish port of Concepcion town.
Since the boat was also loaded with 110 containers of assorted fish, Banias said these were distributed for the consumption of patients admitted at the Sara District Hospital, Jesus M. Colmenares Memorial District Hospital, Ajuy Rural Health Unit and for the inmates of BJMP in Barotac Viejo, Municipal Police Stations of Ajuy, Concepcion, Batad, San Dionisio and Sara.
Banias said this is not the first time that they have apprehended a super haulboat this year. “There has been a lot,” he said.
“They are hard to be apprehended because if we have an intel (intelligence report), they also have their own intel. So we have to really innovate and strategize to apprehend them,” he added.(PNA)
