From high seas to marketplaces

Ric Maulion .

CORRUPTION started right in the Creation story. We learned this from  Genesis chapters 1 to 3 of the Bible. This was when Eve, through the conspiracy of a snake, ruined the day of  Adam. There, the Fall of Mankind started, figuratively speaking.

The incident was unfortunate, of course, because malice contaminated the whole world thereafter. It’s ugly face, like cancer, could be seen all over and unless mitigated, would continue giving sufferings to the people.

Here is a modus operandi you thought never existed at all until you became a victim yourself: corruption among fishermen.

Fishes within a fish, neatly arranged in their bellies, make you misconstrue God to be unfair is in his Creation. Small fishes are at the mercy of bigger fishes. The bigger the fish like yellow fin, barracuda or blue marlin and the many sacrificial fishes forcefully inserted increases the weight and the profit.

How would you know this? Buy a big fish in the market. Normally, the vendor would offer additional services to you by chopping to pieces its meat. Fine. If he doesn’t comply and he resorts to divisionary tactics after being requested, the then something fishy is going on. You would learn later, after chopping it in your kitchen, that that there is actually a “palaman.”

I had this funny experience thrice in a row. The first was at Cogon market. I just shrugged it off. But I later had the same experience at terminal in Bulua and lately, at the Opol port, my favorite marketplace because of guaranteed fresh fishes on display. Some people are just very creative and sometimes exploit the buyers’ gullibility. By this, I mean people in the fishing business.

I thought I benefited as a buyer of eight pieces of barracuda. It was pension day and it was a time for sharing. I was subsequently disappointed over the realization that such unsavory practice is happening and widespread. It doesn’t speak well of the character of Opol town, knowing how fast it has progressed with establishments like Panagatan.

(By the way, the newly opened Opol terminal has Fast Cats regularly plying the Bohol, Camiguin, Dumaguete routes, and generating additional government income and giving local tourism a boost.)

It prompted me to bring the matter to the attention of authorities. Unfortunately, the polite answer I got from the woman in charge was, “Sorry, Sir, we have yet to get to the bottom and identify the people responsible for doing this.”

She was unsure if the retailers are the culprit, adding that it was possible that the fishermen may have been behind the “insertions” themselves.

Nah, mao na roy gidangat!

So, who’s in charge? Who do we turn to if not the local government of Opol? It should tell everyone involved, from the financiers down to the retailers, that it would use its powers and even revoke licenses if needed. Then and only then will the prestige of this progressing municipality be restored.