The Philippines was first put on the map by Lusitanian adventurer Magellan working for the Spanish throne on March 16. 1521. The Philippines had become a Spanish settlement and was the first state to be named after a crowned head. Phillip II of Spain. 1 Spanish regulation had continued until 1898 when the Philippines had become an American settlement following the Spanish-American War for the baronial amount of $ 20 million. In 1942 during WWII. the Philippines had fallen under Nipponese business and was liberated by American and Filipino forces under the leading of General Douglas MacArthur in a ferociously contested conflict that raged on between 1944 and 1945. The Philippines had attained its independency on July 4. 1946. and had a operation democratic system.

2 The Philippines Archipelago consisted of 7. 100 islands. covering an country of 299. 735 square kilometres and was somewhat larger than Arizona. The capital metropolis of Manila was situated on the largest Filipino island of Luzon ( see Exhibit 1 ) . The Philippines had a gross domestic merchandise ( GDP ) per capita of $ 3. 400. 3 The per centum of the population of the Philippines populating below US $ 2 a twenty-four hours was 45. 2 per cent in 2006. 4

PHILIPPINE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Research conducted in 2009 showed that the Philippines was ranked hundred-and-fortieth for easiness of making concern and 155th for get downing a concern. out of a sum of 178 states. It took on mean 15 processs and a sum of 52 yearss to finish concern startup processs in the Philippines compared to six processs and 44. 2 yearss and 5. 8 processs and 13. 4 yearss for the same procedure in Asia and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD ) states. severally. 5 The Philippines had the 2nd last nest eggs and investing as portion of GDP ratio in Asia6 ( see Exhibit 2 ) .

Filipino Fishing Industry

The Philippines has entire territorial Waterss of 2. 2 million square kilometres. of which coastal Waterss comprise 266. 000 square kilometres and coastal reef country ( 10 to 20 fthms deep. where reef fishing takes topographic point ) comprise 27. 000 square kilometres. 7

In 2003. the Philippines ranked 8th among the top fish-producing states in the universe with its entire production of 3. 62 million metric dozenss of fish. crustaceans. molluscs and aquatic workss ( including seaweed ) . The production constituted 2. 5 per cent of the entire universe production of 146. 27 million metric dozenss. 8

The fishing industry’s part to the country’s GDP was 2. 3 per cent and 4. 2 per cent. at current and changeless monetary values. severally. The industry employed a sum of 1. 614. 368 fishing operators countrywide. 9 of which the artisanal piscaries sector accounted for 1. 371. 676. 10 Artisanal fishing operations were typically family-based and used smaller trade. There were a sum of 469. 807 angling boats in the Philippines. of which 292. 180 were non-motorized and 177. 627 were motorized. 11 Fish was non merely an of import beginning of nutrition. but as fishing did non necessitate landownership or particular licenses it was an employment of last resort for people who had no other agencies of subsistence.

MIA. DENMARK

MIA was established in Denmark in 1975 by affluent man of affairs Hagen Nordstrom. who dedicated the NGO to his married woman Mia and made contending poorness his life’s work. ( MIA stood for “beloved” in Danish. ) MIA had ab initio focused entirely on poverty-alleviating undertakings in Africa and had expanded its operations to Latin America and the Caribbean merely in the early 1990s.

The grandson of Nordstrom. Gillis Nordstrom. had taken over as MIA president in 2004 on the Eve of the Bander Aceh Tsunami of December 26. 2004. which devastated Southeast Asia and killed every bit many as 130. 000 people. 12 Nordstrom had taken inaugural and redirected MIA to concentrate on catastrophe recovery and poorness relief undertakings in Southeast Asia.

MIA had established an office in Manila in January 2006. and the immature Danish development economic expert Borje Petersen was hired to pull off the MIA Philippines office. Petersen was paid a get downing wage of $ 75. 000 a twelvemonth plus lodging. somewhat below norm for a comparable development economic expert place. Petersen knew that MIA’s attending was focused on Indonesia and Malaysia. which had been the hardest hit by the tsunami. and was dying to carve out a place for MIA Philippines by planing an exceeding undertaking.

As the enlargement into Asia was the pet undertaking of MIA’s president. Petersen felt assured that support would be easy appropriated and even expedited. Petersen knew that the mean abroad poster for a development economic expert for MIA was two old ages and had rapidly established contact with local and international stakeholders and put up legion meetings with big development undertaking opposite numbers such as the Asian Development Bank. the World Bank and the German development assistance organisation GFZ to acquire an expedited apprehension of the Philippines and its alone demands.

Based on the initial research. Petersen had decided that. whereas an agricultural undertaking would be executable. it would take a long clip to recognize and the result could be complicated given the Philippines’ proneness to be hit by typhoons. Petersen’s research had revealed that small-scale aquaculture undertakings had been successfully implemented in the Philippines in the yesteryear. However. there were barely any undertakings to talk of directed at artisanal fishing and picking up on the vested chance and his desire to present fast consequences and turn out himself worthy of the undertaking that MIA and its president demanded. he had chosen to plan a undertaking assisting artisanal fishermen.

Petersen had researched the possibility of assisting a fishing small town near to Manila and the hunt for the ideal small town had come to a successful stoping when MIA’s driver. Vicente Tubo. had mentioned how some of his distant cousins fished for a life in a fishing small town seven to nine hours by auto from Manila. A factfinding mission to the small town Barangay San Hagon was undertaken and the small town was therefore chosen as the donee of MIA’s pilot undertaking in the Philippines.

BARANGAY SAN HAGON

Barangay San Hagon boasted 125 families and had a resident population of
625. San Hagon lay on the south seashore of Luzon. the largest island of the Philippines. The Barangay was the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and stemmed from the Spanish “Barrio. ”13 Barangay San Hagon was administered by a local authorities unit ( LGU ) and consisted of seven Barangay council members and a president. The president of Barangay San Hagon was Rafael Buenaventura. age 59. who had held office for more than a decennary. Fishing small towns in the Philippines were really vulnerable to external hazard. particularly natural catastrophes such as typhoons. implosion therapy and fish putting to deaths. which badly affected their fiscal state of affairs.