Efforts to rehabilitate reef slow in coming

CEBU, Philippines - Talisay City Aquanauts officer-in-charge Bong Nator, in an interview with reporters, said efforts to rehabilitate Lagundi Reef has been slow even if the Talisay City government had appropriated about P200,000 for its rehabilitation.

“The release has been slow,” Nator said, adding that before the start of the year, he had submitted a proposed budget of P361,000 for the rehabilitation of the reef.

Lagundi Reef, a three hectare marine protected area is located in barangay Poblacion,

The proposed budget takes account of the purchase of buoys and cement and gravel for the construction of sinkers which would serve warnings to fishermen.

But Nator’s proposed budget was turned down.

City budget officer Edgar Mabunay told him his proposal was irrelevant to the reef’s rehabilitation efforts.

“The city government has given only 40 percent support to the rehabilitation of Lagundi Reef,” he said.

The support of the Talisay City government was crucial for the marine sanctuary’s vital recovery, Nator said.

Talisay City Councilor Danny Caballero is asking his colleague, Councilor Bernard Odilao, to immediately present his update on the reef rehabilitation work conducted within the Lagundi Reef.

Caballero said Odilao failed to keep the city council informed about the status of the $10,000 fine paid by Chinese sailors after the MV Majuro ran aground in the reef in 2008.

In 2006, the Talisay City government revived the Lagundi Reef, an almost three-hectare marine protected area in barangay Poblacion.

The Lagundi Reef was then considered by divers as “fortunate” to have escaped most of the damage brought about by dynamite fishing, unlike its sisters - the Makatol Reef in barangay Tangke, and the Pungaton Reef in barangay Pooc, also in Talisay City, which are already in rubbles.

Then city Councilor Shirley Belleza, being head of the tourism committee, spearheaded the rehabilitation of the reef. (FREEMAN)