Sorsogon City -- The Sangguniang Lalawigan of Sorsogon yesterday declared four towns and a city under a state of calamity as a result of the continued ban on shell fish which had affected thousands of fishermen around Sorsogon Bay.

        Board Member Arze Glipo, chair of Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee on Agriculture, said those placed under the state of calamity were the towns of Magallanes, Juban, Casiguran, Castilla and the city of Sorsogon.

        The declaration would now allow the provincial and municipal governments to utilize their calamity funds in extending help to affected fishermen, Glipo said in an interview.

        Also yesterday, members of various fishermen organizations launched a rally in front of the provincial capitol to press the government to lift the shell fish ban imposed by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

        But Gov. Raul Lee who held a dialogue with the demonstrators said it was up for the BFAR to decide on that since it was a technical matter. He promised instead that the provincial government would come up with alternative livelihood programs that could be extended to the fishermen.

        The shell fish ban was imposed by BFAR since October 2006 following laboratory test results showing very high red tide contamination in Sorsogon Bay.

        Serafin Lacdang, head of the Fishery section of the Provincial Agriculture Office, said some 8, 000 fishermen are affected by the ban which has been going on for almost four months now.

        Glipo said that the declaration of the state of calamity would give the governor authority to tap the calamity fund of the province to aid the fishermen.

        The provincial board however failed to come up with what kind of livelihood program that could be extended to the fishermen.

        Meanwhile, municipal agriculturists lambasted the BFAR for the long delay in the release of the laboratory examination results of shell fish samples gathered from the bay.

        In a committee hearing conducted by Glipo the agriculturists said it takes two to three weeks before BFAR sends the result which therefore make it unreliable.

        In another development, a multi-sectoral monitoring team had denied allegations that the continued presence of red tide in Sorsogon Bay was aggravated by the operation of the Bac-Man Geothermal Production Field in Sorsogon City. Media Solution

        In a press statement, the Bac-Man Multi-sectoral Monitoring team said quarterly monitorings were being conducted by them and nothing in the results indicated that the facility’s operation had anything to do with the red tide.

        The BMGMMT was reacting to allegations by some groups blaming the geothermal plant for the presence of the red tide.