Kalamansig: An Emerging Tuna Town Of the Philippinesff

This tuna-rich town is making a niche in the race to development and national prominence by harnessing its tuna population that gave bountiful blessings to the municipality and to the tuna fishers and exporters based in General Santos City.

Town officials, backed-up by the private organizations here, want Kalamansig to be recognized now as “Tuna town of the Philippines” after they have successfully driven away the notorious sea pirates operating within the town's 38 square kilometers municipal waters--reportedly hosting millions of exportable quality tunas like "Skip Jack" and "Yellow Fin."

Sea pirates, known among the coastal residents and fishermen as “Ambak Pare,” had been blamed by town officials as the major reason why GenSan-based bigtime tuna fishers, called in local dialect as “mamarilesay”, left the town and transferred their “tuna catching activities” in Indonesia and Malaysia. Prior to the emergence of sea pirates, the town's average daily production of tuna was 200 tons. The tunas then are shipped to General Santos City for scaling and classification. But due to uncontrollable sea piracy, big tuna fishing companies like RGL Fishing Company, Permex Canning Corporation and Ricsan Company left the locality. As a result, tuna production goes down by 60 percent. “We could hardly accept it. The town's economic activity was also affected. Ambak Pare for us that time was a curse," Vice Mayor Samson Bernales said.

However, that was during the 1970's and 1980's. ”Those happy days”. Bernales said before the rampant days of pirates, Kalamansig had been recognized by tuna fishers and exporters as the sole source of “first class” tuna in the country.

Before the 1970's, he said, the town was producing an average of 200 tons of “first class” tuna per day.  “It was happy days for tuna fishers that time. We considered it as a period of bountiful blessings,” Bernales said. But sad to say, the said recognition remained only on the minds of the tuna fishers, who used “hook and line” and catching tuna. It does not reach the attention of the broadcast and print-media people. They were surprised when General Santos City was declared as the “Tuna Capital of the Philippines.”

“We are still keep on asking why our municipality was not recognize as tuna town of the Philippines,” Bernales said, citing the fact that a big percentage of the tunas sold and exported by businessmen is coming from their town. The reason? Bernales said, “We don't know. We really wanted to be afforded such recognition. We hope it would be given to us with the help of the tuna fishers and exporters,” the vice-mayor said.

Anti-piracy program

When Bai Dido Karon, the wife of the former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) DENR Secretary Datu Randy Karon, assumed into office as the newly elected mayor of Kalamansig in 1998, she immediately implemented a measure to neutralize the notorious Ambak Pare.

”Mayor Karon was furious to the Ambak Pare. She really wanted the pirates to be eliminated in the municipal waters. She had the sincerity to go after them,” Bernales said. Karon, in coordination with the Fisheries Aquatic Resources and Management Council (FARMC), invited "volunteers" to join her fight against the sea pirates. Many, composed mostly of young and aggressive people, have accepted her invitation.

Few weeks later, she eventually formed the “Bantay Dagat.” The lady mayor also sought the assistance of the Maritime elements, the local police and the military to ensure victory.
Karon gave a patrol boat to the Bantay Dagat so that it could conduct an intensified surveillance on its municipal waters. “Bantay Dagat had successfully driven away the sea pirates. Tuna fishers came back again when they learned the development,” Bernales said.

Insp. Ciriaco Labid, municipal police chief, said since Karon launched her anti-piracy program, no cases of piracy were recorded. “Incidents of sea piracy were totally stopped right after the Bantay Dagat conducted a close watch to the municipal waters,” Labid said.

Proof of such good result was the remarkable increase in the tuna production by 50% from its 60% decreased during the rampant days of sea piracy. “Tuna fishers now are enjoying the positive result of Karon's anti-piracy initiative,” Bernales said, adding that, “town's tuna production has slowly returned to its normal level.”

Bong Posadas, municipal environment and natural resources officer of Kalamansig, said the town is now producing an average of 2000 kilos per day (or 62,000 kilos per month), indicating a fruitful business for tuna fishers and exporters. “Our tunas here are guaranteed fresh and has exportable quality because of our near distance to the General Santos City where the tunas are being scaled and classified,” Posadas said. “It's a matter of two hours only in shipping the tunas from Kalamansig,” he said, adding that, “our tunas are still fresh when it arrived in GenSan.”

Posadas said you could easily sense a "difference" in the freshness and taste of tunas coming from Kalamansig and those coming from Indonesia and Malaysia. “If you see it fresh and the taste is good, then it's a Kalamansig tuna. I can assure you that,” he said. There are only two kinds of tuna that can be found in Kalamansig. These are the skipjack and yellowfin.

But Bernales said: “It doesn't mean that we will stop on what we started. We will continue implement the town's anti-piracy program to ensure a sustainable prevention.”

At present, the municipal government, in partnership with the foreign organizations and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Mindanao, is also carrying out alternative livelihood projects to the residents, especially the small fishermen, to divert their attention from destructive activities such as illegal fishing and other undertakings that could possibly disturb the presence of its tuna population.