From Cory’s galunggong to Ate Glo’s tilapia

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — President Arroyo wants to leave her mark on the Filipino dining table by making tilapia affordable to even the poorest families by the time she steps down in 18 months.

This legacy of tilapia, also known as St. Peter’s fish, recalls former President Corazon Aquino’s battlecry in the 1986 snap elections against former President Ferdinand Marcos, when she vowed to bring down the rising cost of galunggong.

But the lowly galunggong, a saltwater variety also known as scudfish, has ceased to be the poor man’s viand. In Central Luzon, galunggong now sells from P70 to P80 a kilo, even as tilapia can be bought at P60 a kilo.

Presidential Assistant for North Luzon Renato Diaz said the President has been meeting with agriculture and fishery officials since last December to tackle ways to further boost aquaculture nationwide by encouraging rice farmers to alternate crops with tilapia culture which would pull down the fish’s price.

Records from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) indicate that the Philippines has a vast natural resource of 106,328 hectares of freshwater and 232,065 hectares of brackish water swamplands, as well as 14,531 hectares and 239,000 hectares of brackish water fishponds.

"President Arroyo now wants tilapia readily within reach of the poorest of the poor in line with her policy of bringing food for every table of Filipino families," Diaz said.

"This is why the government is now encouraging better land use through multicropping and aquaculture," he said.

He noted that galunggong is a saltwater fish that is getting harder to catch from the sea, while tilapia is a freshwater fish that could be raised even in rice ponds after harvest.

Tilapia is now being propagated in backyard tanks — the reason its price has dropped.

At the same time, Diaz also said the President wants two major projects of her administration in Central Luzon to be in full blast construction before she steps down from Malacañang in 2004.

He identified the projects as the long-delayed $1.5-billion Clark-Metro Manila railway system and the P18.7-billion Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway.