LEGAZPI CITY -- Antonio Balbin, 44, father of ten, a fisherman from Poblacion village Rapu-Rapu, Albay was in great despair after the worst economic disaster struck the blighted communities of the island town whose main source of livelihood is fishing.

        “I could no longer feed my family. I could not bring home food from the sea after the fish kill incident because I don’t want to put the lives of my family to great danger like the case of our fellow fisherman whose wife succumbed to death last week after eating fish,” Balbin told Bicol Mail.

        Balbin is the only bread winner in the family that depends on fishing. “Before, I was earning P800 a day out of 10 kilos of fish catch but since the operation of Lafayette mining my income was down to no more than P300 a day because fish was fast diminishing,” he said.

        Fr. Andy Baliwas, parish priest of Sta. Florentina Parish in Rapu-Rapu island town told newsmen in the press briefing at the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Legazpi last Wednesday that the people of Rapu-Rapu have been starving since the fish kill.

        “Grabe na an pagtios kan mga pamilya digdi ta dai na nakakapagsira. Nagluluya na an boot kan mga taga Rapu-Rapu. Hopeless na kami ta iba an resulta na pigpapaluwas kan government pero dakul an apektado na naghirilang, pagkatapos magkakan kan sira. (People are getting hungry and economically displaced because the major source of living was seriously affected nowadays. We’re also hopeless because despite the fish kill the government insisted the absence of chemical contamination,” the priest lamented.

        Most of the villagers of Poblacion were reported seeking food aid from the parish to survive on a daily basis.

        “We’re surviving from daily subsistence through the help of Fr. Andy Baliwas, without him the people of Poblacion will end up hungry,” a villager said.

        The fish kill incident in Rapu-Rapu was discovered by the villagers last October 28 following heavy rains. Tons of dead fish were found by the villagers floating in the shorelines of Rapu-Rapu.

        Bishop Lucilo Quiambao, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Legazpi claimed that several people fell sick after eating fish and other food from the sea.

        “There could be no worse economic disaster than this, 70 percent of the island’s population whose livelihood is dependent on fishing were seriously affected,” the prelate lamented in his pastoral bulletin No. 10, series of 2007 which was read in all parishes of Albay province.

        Last November 22, a certain Maurita De Ramas, 27, of Barangay Poblacion died allegedly after eating fish. Maurita according to Balbin complained of dizziness after eating fish which was caught by her husband in the waters off Rapu-Rapu.

        The victim was rushed to the hospital but attending physician said Maurita suffered from heart attack. Anancio Chan, 29, of the same barangay said that the Maurita was an ardent oppositor of mining operation since the fish kill.

        Maurita succumbed to death a day after she joined the protesters in Rapu-Rapu and set up the “Kampo ng Bayan” within the municipal hall premises to ask the local officials to take action for the closure of Lafayette Mining to protect the people and the whole island from environmental hazards.