Riverine food and reviving the Pasig Micky Fenix Philippine Daily Inquirer
June 24, 2009
AT PESCADORES, a restaurant in Malabon, I told one of the owners, Monchet Lucas, that I used to eat at Fish Fun as a child. I asked him where it could be found today. He looked at me and said the place was right where we were. But I asked, where are the fishponds?
I remembered walking through wooden planks above those ponds and even trying to catch some bangus with the fishing rods provided by the establishment. Those scenes are now just part of a photo gallery on the walls of the restaurant and in my family scrapbook.
It was easy to see why the ponds are gone. In front of Pescadores was a view of the squatter area, rows of shanties and, yes, humanity. Beside the houses were what looked like ponds but I wouldn’t say that those had living fish, shrimps and crabs that were the specialties of the old Fish Fun.
Lucas’ father, Jesus, pointed to the ponds now only in pictures and to the river, where he would lower his salambao (fish net) and then catch different freshwater fish. The ponds do appear during the rains only because of the flooding.
Unlike Pateros where the river no longer exists, Malabon still has a river but it needs rehabilitation. The water is black opaque in color with garbage floating on top.
The fish life of Marikina, like Malabon, must have only what is called janitor fish, the kind that eats garbage and other fish.
In Malolos, Bulacan, the afternoon market scene consists of when the buyer can get freshwater fish like biya and ayungin. Those are getting rarer now and, thus, more expensive. At one restaurant, we had the martiniko (climbing perch), which surprised our Bulacan host because it hadn’t been available for a long time.
Contrast all those to the rivers in Baler, Aurora province. It has been such a long time since I last saw clean and clear flowing water, the kind you’d want to bathe in, maybe even drink. At lunch we had what they called river shrimps or ulang. They were fat and very red. They tasted clean, which is the real test of how safe the food is.
Rehabilitation
But it is the rehabilitation of the Pasig River which concerns Metro Manila residents because it passes through several of its cities—Quezon City, Mandaluyong, Taguig, Makati, Manila, Marikina, Pasig and San Juan.
Many projects have been launched to save the Pasig but most have waxed and waned. One project I have seen is Unilever’s in Manila. Since its plant is beside a Pasig tributary, it has nets to catch the garbage that the current brings. The garbage is retrieved and then disposed of properly.
The latest effort is Kapit Bisig Para Sa Ilog Pasig launched in February. It’s a river rehabilitation project of ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources through its Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission and local governments, non-government organizations and private corporations. It’s a collaborative effort because the scope of the project is massive—it involves 47 tributaries of the Pasig.
The plan’s first phase is the relocation of the houses and even factories along the tributaries and the river. The second phase will be solid waste management. To be set up in each tributary is a Materials Recovery Facility including equipment to transform organic waste into methane gas that will in turn power other machines that will convert organic waste to fertilizer. Equipment will also shred plastic and styrofoam and convert them into usable products like shoe soles.
The third phase will use a Filipino invention, powder from banana plants, to transform sewage water to Class C water to bring back the freshwater life in the Pasig River in seven years.
Seems like a tall order but at least something is being done.
