Of “Lupoy” and “Magpupukot”

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 9:20pm

Development work is really exciting for new discoveries and learning are inherent in this kind of job. My recent immersion in Sta. Maria made me discover and learn some ways of life in the community. Along with this is the opportunity to talk and work with the residents living in the area who belong from different Muslim groupings such as the Tausog, Maguindanaon, and Kalibugan (mixture of Subanon and Muslim).

Brgy. Sta. Maria is part of the twenty six (26) barangays of the Municipality of Siocon, Province of Zamboanga del Norte. Majority of its population are Muslims. Fishing is the main livelihood in Sta. Maria.

Below is a brief description on how fisher folks in Sta. Maria perform their fishing activity in a particular period they referred to as “dulom”.


“Lupoy”

Lupoy is a local term being used by the residents of Sta. Maria for a fish known as Tamban in Tagalog. However, this lupoy is not yet a full grown Tamban. It is only about one to two inches in size. Lupoy is attracted to light.

From the months of January to March (the longest), every first quarter and last quarter period of the moon they called as “dulom”, lupoy swarm to the cove of Sta. Maria.

Fishermen dry the lupoy and sell them to a middle man for about Php60.00 to 90.00 per kilo or directly sell them in Siocon Market.


“Magpupukot” and “Mangingilaw”

Pukot refers to a “fishnet”. A fisherman who owns a pukot is called magpupukot or “fishnet owner”.

There are magpupukot who own a small boat that carries a small pukot and usually do the activity in the nearby shore. However, there are magpupukot who have a quite bigger boat (called as “pakpakan”) that can carry a bigger pukot and can fish in the deeper portion of the cove.

On the other hand, a mangingilaw is a term used to refer to a fisherman who owns a light they called “petromax”. Typically, as required in this particular activity, a mangingilaw should own two (2) petromax.

Based on my initial data gathering activity, there are around thirty nine (39) magpupukot in Sta. Maria. However, it is very difficult to identify the numbers of mangingilaw that are legitimate residents of Sta. Maria since there are mangingilaw who joins other mangingilaw catching lupoy in the area that are residents of the nearby Barangays like of Nonoyan and Panubigan. Nevertheless, as observed, during the season of lupoy there are about ninety (90) to one hundred twenty (120) pairs of petromax seen floating in the water. (I counted them one by one during my overnight stay in the area.)


Catching Lupoy or the “apong”

The months of January to March are considered season of lupoy. The magpupukot and mangingilaw start catching lupoy during dulom.

Since lupoy is attracted to light, they swarm into the petromax of the mangingilaw floating in the water.

When the mangingilaw notices a huge team of lupoy teeming (the fisher folks called this as “apong”) by his petromax, he will then carefully paddle his boat while slowly pulling the petromax into the direction of the magpupukot where the fishnet is already set up to catch the lupoy. It is very important for the magpupukot not to create any motions that will disturb those lupoy following the light coming from the petromax.

The magpupukot and mangingilaw are dependent to each other. As practiced, the mangingilaw get the two-third (2/3) share from the total catch and the magpupukot gets one-third (1/3). However, this is not always the rule.

When the magpupukot is known generous (galante), he will be patronized by more mangingilaw.