Sitio Matalvis is a coastal community that is densely packed with fishermen and their families who flourished or failed according to the bounty of the sea. Even when a fire broke out here in February 2012 and wiped out the homes of more than 200 families, the hardy fisherfolk bounced back soon after—rebuilding their lives in houses built on stilts along the muddy shoreline. But the Matalvis fishermen were not ready for what was to come barely two months after the fire. This was when the Philippines figured in a tense diplomatic standoff with China over Scarborough Shoal, a resource-rich lagoon 240 nautical miles west of Zambales. For the locals, Scarborough was Bajo de Masinloc, their traditional fishing ground—a lucrative source of high-value reef fishes, as well as refuge during harsh weather. But when Chinese militia boats erected a barrier at the entrance of the shoal by July of 2012 and took effective control of the lagoon, the people of Matalvis became direct casualties of the territorial conflict: the bonanza from the sea virtually dried out.

Empeño, H. (2021, November 21). Bucking the Bajo 'blockade'. Business Mirror, pp. A1, A2.