In a statement, the Washington-based International Network for Environmental Compliance (INEC) said the recent decision of Judge Antonio Marigomen introduced the idea of "creative penology" against illegal fishing.
"The innovation aims not only to penalize illegal fishermen, but more importantly, to rehabilitate and transform them to be protectors of the very marine environment they once destroyed," said Professor Durwood Zaelke, INEC director general.
"It should serve as a model for other judicial systems around the world in the handling of environment and natural resources-related offenses," Zaelke added.
Fishermen Adriano Ilustrisimo, Rosendo Rosalejos Jr., Edgar Desabille and Melino Putong pleaded guilty to illegal fishing and entered into a plea-bargaining deal, prompting Marigomen to spare them from detention and instead ordered them to be protectors of the sea.
As part of the deal, the accused will be fish wardens once a week for the duration of their two-year prison term.
As sea guardians, they have joined the Visayan Sea Squadron (VSSq) and are now helping put up marine sanctuaries around the Visayan Sea.
The VSSq is a group of volunteer citizens and law enforcement personnel whose aim is to protect the Visayan Sea, which has the richest marine resources on earth.
They were arrested last May 19 off the waters of Sta. Fe while a group of lawyers, judges, prosecutors and NBI-VSSq personnel was holding environmental law training at the Bantayan island SEA Camp.
In a seaborne operation, authorities recovered evidence of dynamited fish thrown away by the illegal fishermen.
In a letter to the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice, environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa, the leader of the VSSq, congratulated the NBI-VSSq personnel under lawyer Ermie Monsanto, Marigomen and Cebu Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Ivy Macias for the decision. — Freeman News Service