The concern shown by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for our fishermen last week made me emotional and nostalgic about my early childhood. His plan to put up nearly a dozen cold storage facilities in several parts of the nation to reduce the high spoilage in the catch of Filipino fishermen is very timely. It is a shot in the arm that our fishermen need in this high inflationary regime. I can empathize with our hardworking fishermen. They sweat out and take risks in the open sea to provide their family with a decent meal and eke out a living amid the punishing weather. I was once in the middle of the food chain of fish production and marketing. At the age of six, I helped my mother in selling shrimp and fish at the Divisoria Public Market to earn money and support my siblings and myself to school.

Villar, M. B. Jr. (2023, March 22). Timely help for our fishermen. Panay News, pp. 7, 15.