The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) thru its 2015 Listahanan database identifies a total of 29,998 poor fisherfolks in the province of Palawan from the 93,352 fisherfolks in MIMAROPA.
From the figure, 49.8% or 46,523 fisherfolks aged 15 years old and above are poor.
Three Palawan towns have the most number of poor fisherfolks identified: Balabac with 156, Taytay with 83 and Coron with 71.
Listahanan, a government mechanism to identify who and where the poor are, recorded Palawan province has the highest percentage of poor fisherfolks with 52.9% (29,998) followed by Occidental Mindoro with 51.7% (6,391); Romblon with 47.4% (4,006); Oriental Mindoro with 39.8% (3,723); and Marinduque with 36.9% (2,405).
Of the total identified poor fisherfolks, 95.8% (44,563) are male and 4.2% (1,960) are female.
In terms of educational attainment, 3.9% or 1,808 fisherfolks have no grade completed; 28.6% (13,310) of poor fisherfolks graduated from elementary; 12.3% (5,742) graduated from high school, and 0.2% (101) graduated from college.
Those data were released last week by the Department as the nation celebrated the National Fisherfolks Day on May 31 to give recognition to the rightful stewards and beneficiaries of our oceans and its natural resources as well as our lakes, gulfs, bays and other fishing areas.