New Boat, Fresh Hope for Roxas Fisher Folk

Fernando and Isabelita Ibanada in their new boat. The
net is the only piece of fishing gear they were
able to salvage after the storm.

Fernando and Isabelita Ibanada of Barra, Roxas City go out to sea in the small hours of the morning, bring home fresh catches of fish, crabs, and shellfish, and help make Roxas City the seafood capital of the country. But when Yolanda battered their tiny barangay on the northern coast of Capiz, the only boat they owned was shattered, never to be used again. 

Today, a month and a half after Typhoon Yolanda struck, Tatay Fernando has hope as fresh as an early morning catch of fish and he can go out to sea again – in a newly-purchased secondhand boat. The Ibanadas and four other fishermen are the first of 33 boat owners to receive loan assistance for boat purchase or repair from CCT and Bread from Heaven Christian Fellowship (BFHCF), a church in Las Pinas, Metro Manila. 

The couple will also receive P5,000 worth of housing materials free from BFHCF  for their partially-damaged house. The boats and eight houses being rebuilt with assistance from CCT and BHCF were dedicated to the Lord in a simple program attended by families of the recipients and by Pastor Doy of BFHCF. 

Anna Mae Labanero, CCT regional peer servant, said, “By Janaury we will have 20 more houses and about four more new or repaired boats to be dedicated to God.” 

Labanero added that all 2,079 community partners whose houses were totally destroyed will also receive assistance in 2014. Recipients of micro finance loans from the CCT Savings and Credit cooperative are referred to as community partners within CCT circles.

Of the 1,905 CCT community partners in the province of Capiz, about 310 are in the fishing industry as fishers, vendors, or processors.

- with reports from Connie Defensor, Roxas City, Capiz