PAMALAKAYA levels up: Ahon Mangingisda! Filipino fishers climate strike

This article was originally published in 2019.

Nanay Monica, a 60 year old mother and grandmother, who has fished all her life along Manila Bay is now engaged in a fight for survival. A strong storm has inundated their salt farm and wetlands but a patch of mangroves saved their house on stilts so that they were still able to live on a daily catch of fish and crabs. That was 2009. Now their community is completely submerged in sea water due to an unexplained rise in sea level every year. Worse, the patch of mangroves are to give way to the construction of an airport and Monica and more than 200 families would have to relocate and give up fishing altogether. Crying before an audience during

the Climate Change adaptation summit, she and several other women sought advice.

Tatang Pido, 80, a fisherman for more than 50 years now says that the ocean is his life. “Ocean with fish!”, he reiterates during a forum on reclamation that imperils ocean life. Another fisherfolk, Nanay Myrna, 69, a shellfish and oyster farmer living along the bay laments the dwindling harvest and persistent challenge of demolition to give way to yet another reclamation project that will totally destroy the sea bed.

Monica, Pido and Myrna have learned their lessons. Last February 24, at the foot of

Mendiola Bridge, they shouted “Ahon mangingisda! (Fishers, rise up! )” as leaders of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas or PAMALAKAYA together with hundreds of subsistence fisherfolk. They realize that climate change impacts them most and climate justice is now their call.

PAMALAKAYA is an organization of small fisherfolk from 43 provinces across 9 regions in the Philippines. Currently, it has around 100,000 members striving to confront challenges to their survival including climate change and development aggression. Last March 28, 2019, the PAMALAKAYA National Council underwent a climate change orientation and adaptation workshop with the CCNCI.

Initial plans for climate action were set and implemented. For a year, the group embarked in climate change education, discussions and sharing of actual observations among their lot. According to climate experts cited in their campaign paper, by 2050, a great flood will submerge vulnerable coastal communities because of the cumulative rising sea levels. Fisherfolk will bear the brunt of this ecological disaster.

Now is the time to address the underlying factors that cause and exacerbate the effects of global warming. The Filipino fishers have taken this challenge! This year, the PAMALAKAYA “joins the global movement against climate change and global warming in the name of saving their fishing communities and the entire sector from utmost extinction.”

For this challenge, the PAMALAKAYA, together with allied organizations like the CCNCI will embark on climate education for its growing membership and step up calls to resist projects that worsen flooding, destroy ocean biodiversity and hasten land subsidence. Among these are reclamation projects, mining and dumping of toxic waste in inland and coastal areas and infrastructure and big businesses that pollute and destroy fishing grounds. They will also engage and challenge government agencies to decisively address and ultimately curb the devastating effects of climate change. Thirdly, the organization will enjoin local, national and international support from individuals, organizations and groups to fight for climate justice. The Filipino Fishers Climate Strike of the PAMALAKAYA is proudly a first in the world. They aspire to reach out to other fisherfolk and coastal people so that together climate justice may be served.

Their calls:

Filipino Fishers are on Climate Strike! Resist Plunder of our Seas!

No to Reclamation! Save Manila Bay!

Restore the Mangroves, our Natural Defense versus Rising Seas!

Fishing Rights are Human Rights!

Our Boats are Sinking, Let’s Group and Resist Climate Change!

Fishers are Expert Swimmers, but we Refuse Submersion of our Communities!

Climate Justice Now!