Mang Boy Molejon moved to Bataraza in southern Palawan in the mid-‘70s from Quezon Province. Back then, he would sell fish to the mining engineers and workers of Rio Tuba Nickel. The nickel mine was just being developed.

Sitio Marbahay was just a small fishing community but a jump-off point to the islands off southern Palawan. He recalled that the young Galib Andang (Commander Robot of the Abu Sayyaf Group) would ask to be ferried over to Balabac.

Now, he oversees the local government unit’s (LGU’s) fisheries programs and is in charge of the marine sanctuaries/no-take zones of the biodiverse area and the protection of the endangered saltwater crocodiles that make the Rio Tuba basin their home.

He recalls how crocodiles would loiter around their village, especially after high tide. They would hear the breaking of mangrove branches or the squealing of pigs under attack. There have been several casualties, part of the hazards of living beside the crocodile habitat.

“The crocodiles remember. They will come back for you,” he said.

He relates the story of one fisherman who hit one crocodile with a paddle. The reptile came back for him a month later and returned to the same fishing ground where the incident took place. The bantay-dagat personnel shot the crocodile and hit it on the side before it escaped. But the fisherman had already been killed.

The village folk caught one entangled in the mangroves. The crocodile had a scar on its side from what appeared to be a bullet wound. Scientists from Puerto Princesa came and took the animal with them. It was 18 feet long.

#ProjectLarawan. Profiles of the Filipino. One portrait at a time.

Project Larawan is an initiative of Gabriel “Gabby” Malvar, a documentary filmmaker, writer and photographer, whose narratives are nuanced with unique, inventive perspectives to provoke an inquisitive look at his favorite subject, the Philippines. Become a part of Filipino identity every other Saturday on the DAILY TRIBUNE.