The Fisherfolk of Isla Manaet: In the Philippines, getting ready for the next storm
In the wee hours of one morning last November, 64-year-old fisher Julian Bata and his wife were awakened by the howling of the wind against their dried grass roof and loud cracks of thunder — sounds that are all too familiar to the members of their coastal community on Manaet Island in the Philippines.
Just a few weeks prior, they endured the wrath of Typhoon Quinta and its intense winds and rainfall. Many of the damaged houses in the community had not been fixed yet.
Manaet Island is located off the coast of one of the most disaster-prone regions in the Philippines, Albay, which hosts an active volcano, Mount Mayon. The region often faces multiple hazards because of its geography and location.
Late last October, local government authorities had already warned Tatay (Papa) Julian and the communities in Bacacay about the coming typhoon Goni, locally referred to as “Rolly.” Their local representatives urged the families to secure their belongings, pack up, and evacuate to the designated safety areas.
Before evacuating his family, Tatay Julian rushed to check on his fishing boat, which he securely tied down and hid under a heavy canvas next to their kubo (small home), located around 200 meters from the shore. Fishing — his primary source of livelihood — had been halted because of the inclement weather. Nevertheless, Tatay Julian had to make sure that his boat was safe and intact so that he could go to sea again once the typhoon had passed.
“We are used to the typhoons,” recalls Tatay Julian. “I tied down the boat and then we evacuated because we are located only 200 meters from the shore.”
The same is true for Judy Besin from Manaet Island, and her husband, a fisher who resorted to raising hogs as an alternative source of income amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The yield from fishing had not been good because of the typhoons and they needed to find other means to feed their three young children. They could afford to buy only one pig, and they had been looking forward to selling it for around 12,000 PHP (roughly 240 USD) once it’s old enough.
“We don’t have other means of livelihood aside from fishing and hog-raising,” says Judy.
“Life on the island is very hard. We are so far from the city centre. When Rolly hit, we were evacuated. Our family lives next to the shore. When we came back, everything we owned was destroyed, but our sole pig survived!”
Soon after the evacuation, they realized that Rolly was no ordinary typhoon. It would come be known as the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in 2020, leaving at least 20 people dead, displacing another 89,000 in Albay, and affecting almost two million people across 26 provinces on the island of Luzon. The Bicol Region bore the typhoon’s violent winds and torrential rains, blowing away roofs, toppling structures, and causing severe flooding and landslides.
And unbeknownst to the people of Bicol then, they would only have a few days of respite from the destruction of Rolly before another typhoon hit the region — Ulysses. Indeed, eight typhoons entered the Philippines between October 11 and November 11 of 2020.
Along with the pandemic, the succession of typhoons has upended the livelihoods of Manaet Island’s fisherfolk and left them without income for an extended period. Houses and fishing boats were destroyed, and Manaet was left disconnected and without electricity for months.
In January 2021, two months after Rolly and Ulysses, UNDP was tapped by the Provincial Government to assist in rehabilitating livelihoods in severely affected areas in Albay. Among the target community for this initiative were women and micro-entrepreneurs, farmers, weavers, and fisherfolks like Tatay Julian.
The UNDP livelihood assistance, which began in March 2021, reached 460 people from the seven selected municipalities through the support of the Bicol Consortium for Development initiative (BCDI).
In addition, FAO has helped affected fisherfolk re-establish their livelihoods and improve their food security and nutrition. FAO aims to restore lost agricultural and fisheries resources by supplying agriculture and fisheries essentials, cash transfers to meet immediate food needs and allow farmers and fisherfolk to restart farming and fishing.
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic still permeates all aspects of society, the fisherfolk of Bacacay hope that they will be able to grow the livelihood support into a sustainable income. The next time Tatay Julian and other fisherfolks in the coastal communities are woken up from their slumber by the rumble of an incoming typhoon, they would not have to worry about where they will get their next meal or how they will be able to afford to rebuild their homes.
This story draws from previously published stories by UNDP (Part 1 and Part 2) and information from FAO . Editorial support provided by Lyla Peng and Paul VanDeCarr of the Development Coordination Office. For more information on the United Nations' work in the Philippines, please visit: Philippines.UN.org. To learn more about the results of our work in this area and beyond, please read the UNSDG Chair Report on DCO.
