By ANGELICA CARBALLO
SAN ANTONIO, Zambales—Some 20 years ago, Jose Jimenez lost his right arm and the sight of his left eye when a dynamite blew up in his hand, but he and others like him refuse to be called persons with disability.
Jimenez’s fate is shared by Pascual Cerizo who lost an arm and who is among the many fishermen who used explosives to blast schools of fish in the sea off the coast of Barangay San Miguel here.
Dynamite or blast fishing is rampant here in this second class town as it is in many parts of the Philippines. Fishermen use homemade devices, usually powdered potassium nitrate and pebbles or ammonium nitrate and kerosene mixed inside a glass bottle thrown into the waters to kill or stun a school of fish for easy catching.
Dynamite fishing has contributed to the massive destruction of the country’s coral reefs and the disappearance of aquatic species. It has also turned fishermen into PWDs, if not killed them altogether.
