Gov’t troops in Cagayan act as village watchmen, referees

PALAUI ISLAND, San Vicente, Cagayan, Philippines – Unlike their colleagues deployed to secure the country’s regime of islands in the West Philippine Sea, the troops on security and territorial duty deployed here are relatively luckier.

While their counterparts in Palawan are constantly on their toes because of China’s aggressive behavior in the region, the soldiers here are tasked as barangay watchmen – mostly to break up fights among the local residents composed of 300 families.

“Aside from our official duties in guarding our territory, often we perform referee duties,” Marine T/Sgt, Rogelio Jabalde said.

Jabalde is deputy commander of the Punta Verde naval outpost based in this island where the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet.

Life here, according to Jabalde, is not as stressful compared to being deployed in the western side of the country where China is laying claim to the islands and reefs comprising the Spratlys.

There are only a handful of troops deployed here – Jabalde, the Marine and two Navy men – all from the Philippine Navy’s Camelo Osias Naval Base in mainland Sta. Ana town.

“Aside from acting as referees to break up fights of local residents here, we do patrol our waters around the island against fishermen engaged in illegal fishing,” Jabalde said.

With the deployment of troops in this island, suspected poachers from Taiwan are no longer seen fighting it out with local fishermen.

“It’s been a long time that we haven’t seen a Taiwanese fishing vessel in our waters,” said Charlie Acebedo, a resident of the island.

Palaui Island is located between the mainland of Luzon and Camiguin Island, part of the Calayan Island Group.

The Calayan Island group is near Balintang Channel where only last year, a suspected Taiwanese poacher was killed by patrolling Philippine Coast Guard personnel.

While the waters off Cagayan are already free of Taiwanese poachers, the intrusions are continuing in the still unguarded waters of Batanes.

The Balintang incident brought diplomatic relations between Manila and Taipei to a new low. Relations improved with the indictment of the PCG personnel involved.

Recently, a Taiwanese fishing boat ran aground in one of the reefs in Batanes, but the absence of a bigger ship to tow the vessel afforded time for other Taiwanese vessels to salvage and tow it back to Taiwan.

“Before, they used to be around doing poaching and illegal fishing in our waters but now they’re gone,” Acebedo said.

Apart from being a fisherman, Acebedo also works as tourism officer in Palaui.

The island is fast becoming a tourism area after serving as the venue of the “Survivor” reality series last year.

Other groups of fishermen added they are competing with Taiwanese fishermen in deep-sea fishing in the seas off Batanes.

“The Taiwanese are no longer here but in Batanes, they are numerous. It’s because there are no troops in the islands there,” one of the fishermen said.

The military said a plan is being worked out to deploy troops in the islets in Batanes.

Going north

Known as the northern frontier, the country’s territorial waters under the jurisdiction of Batanes and Cagayan remains widely unsecured against poaching and illegal fishing.

“A proposal on this particular deployment, patterned after our territorial and domain awareness operations within our regime of islands in the Spratlys, is currently under study,” an official said.

The official added the plans are to deploy troops in the seven uninhabited islets close to the territorial waters off Taiwan.

Once the proposal is approved, troops will be initially deployed in Y’ami Island and the North Island, all located in the northernmost portion of the country’s territorial waters facing Taiwan.

A survey was conducted by the provincial government of Batanes and the military in all the seven islets and discovered that they are all habitable, with the presence of fresh water.

“For now, there’s nobody staying in all these islets but a herd of goats that are being stolen and regularly being butchered by intruding Taiwanese, Vietnamese and Chinese fishermen,” another official said.

The location of these islets is highly strategic in terms of military and economic value, as the surrounding waters serve as passageways of foreign fishermen sailing from the South China Sea to fish at Benham Rise in the Pacific.

Milagros Morales, assistant regional director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Cagayan Valley, lamented the absence of troops to serve as a deterrent force in the surrounding islets comprising Batanes province.

She said the absence of any deterrent force has emboldened not only the Taiwanese fishermen but also those from China and Vietnam to conduct poaching and illegal fishing in the waters of the province.

“After last year’s shooting incident in Balintang Channel, they never left. We felt helpless because we don’t have anything to stop them,” Morales said.

She also lamented the absence of the military territorial force in the area has emboldened foreign poachers to venture closer to the island town of Itbayat.

She said a lone government vessel coming from her homeport in Sta. Ana, Cagayan had to be dispatched to Batanes to patrol the Itbayat waters.

At Benham Rise, a government research vessel is also in the area to guide fishermen on what type of fishing is suitable to further increase their daily catch.

Angel Encarnacion, Batanes provincial officer, said the deployment of a Bureau of Fisheries vessel to the province is in support of the ongoing maritime and territorial domain awareness patrol being conducted by a lone Navy ship.

Last year, Encarnacion said local fishery enforcers accosted a Taiwanese fishing vessel docked near Itbayat, but failed to seize the foreign ship and apprehend its crewmembers in the absence of a bigger ship to tow the intruding vessel to the capital town of Basco.

“That is one of the primary reasons why a plan is being studied to deploy troops for maritime and territorial duties in the Batanes,” said the official.

If only soldiers were deployed in the area, the Balintang Channel shooting incident could have been avoided, he said.