Heeding the message

Greed. That’s all it is. No act of God, no Biblical plague, not even Mother Earth is to blame for the industry-crashing fish kill that has all but sent milkfish and tilapia growers to the dogs. Or ironically, to the crocs. Crocodiles have always been the symbol of greed. Feeding the fishkill to them is as ironic as you can get.

 Everyone just wants to get rich quick. Perhaps they have a pressing need to do so. Tuition for five kids. A lifestyle that has to be maintained, or upgraded. A need to one-up a despised acquaintance. A mistress that just won’t be content. All having to do with a need for more money, and fast. Newly appointed director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Asis Perez confirmed the obvious. A desire for more money prompted the fish growers to overcrowd and overstock their fish cages. Much like the New Bilibid Prison and public school classrooms.

 And isn’t it so Filipino to overcrowd. We do that in passenger boats. We do that on the MRT/LRT. We do that in commercial establishments (remember the tragic Ozone Disco fire in Quezon City). We just love to pack it in. Because packing it in means more money. But owners aren’t solely to blame. Authorities share the blame as well. If only the correct capacities – whether for the number of fish cages allowed per area, the number of fingerlings per cage, persons in a restaurant, passenger vehicle capacity of all kinds, even schools – would be followed, these crippling events would not occur at all. With regards to the schools, that may be beyond anyone’s control right now as students who are only too eager to learn must be accommodated. But at a risk I hope can be avoided. It’s a lot easier to get sick in a crowded place. And you can’t get any more crowded than 80-100 pupils in one classroom!

 We’ve all heard the famous saying of Romulo Neri, even if he denies saying it, to “moderate the greed.” This is probably the best advise for the times, especially for the fish growers. The current widespread fish kill is a message that cannot get any louder for the growers. They would do well to heed it. A repeat of this kind of fish kill would permanently destroy the livelihood of so many. To refute the statement of the fictional Gordon Gekko, greed is not good.