GUIUAN, Eastern Samar-About 2, 223 fishermen in Guiuan, Mercedes, and Salcedo, all in Eastern Samar, benefited the government’s “AHON Project” of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). BFAR, together with its private partners, launched the “AHON Project” that targets 10, 000 boats to be repair within “Yolanda” affected areas particularly Leyte and Eastern Samar. This project comes in three phases.
The phase one of the project is the repair of boats and the giving of materials consisting of plywood, epoxy, nails, and paints to affected fishermen. Along with this phase, each beneficiary receives an incentive of P1, 500 for repairing their boat under the scheme of cash-for-work. The second phase is the replacement of totally damaged boats and gears.
A boat building facility was built at the Guiuan Integrated Terminal for this phase where fiber glass boats are built. BFAR did not set limits regarding the number of beneficiaries for this phase. Pearl farm project leader Sarah Salazar said that only those who were not beneficiaries of the first phase and received boats from non-government organizations are eligible to avail the phase II of the project. The last phase of the “AHON Project” is the provision of support mechanism to improve productivity.
This phase includes deployment of 70 units of payao. The deployment is from towns of Arteche down to Guiuan. Distribution of chest freezers is also a part of this phase where it took place last July 1 during BFAR’s anniversary. (REINALORE GUIMBAOLIBOT)
