Mayor Nelson’s ‘kill order’ on whales, sharks

WHAT did Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia say at the environment forum, Tañon Strait Protected Seascape Stakeholders’ Summit, held in Cebu City last Feb. 11?

News reports quoted Garcia as saying “dolphins, whales, sharks are parasites... some of them should be killed.” They endanger the fishermen’s catch, Garcia said, as they eat two tons of fish each day. He suggested, one report said, controlling the population of dolphins, whales and sharks along Tañon Strait by killing some of them.

Five days later, last Feb. 16, Garcia said he was taken out of context. He didn’t order anybody to kill dolphins, sharks and whales, he said. Who’s right and who’s wrong? The news reports focused on the “kill” part of the story. “I want to kill those whale sharks” was the lead of the rappler.com story. So was The Freeman’s but it put in a qualifier, “some of them should be killed.” Both news outlets though headlined the “quote” minus the qualifier.

An environment official was glad the mayor raised the issue, which could set off a discussion on how sea life on the strait should be managed. “He may have been the only one brave enough to say those things. Maybe the other local officials have the same understanding. I welcome any debate on it,” said Liza Osorio, an environmental lawyer and trustee of the Philippine Earth Justice Center.

The question is which to kill and which to spare and who decides. A reporter recalled the order of a landowner to his workers, “I want all the bananas killed, including the children.”

What’s sure is that the debate is on. A Sun.Star reader, one Jay Paul C. Pogoy, sent this section a cartoon depicting Mayor Garcia as a kind of a whale hunter aboard mv Dumanjug, leading his men to kill a huge shark.