No harmony without justice, fisherfolk leader tells graduates

PANGISDA Pilipinas President Pablo Rosales urged University of the Philippines Visayas graduates to carry their knowledge into farming, fishing, and coastal communities during commencement rites on July 10, 2026.

Rosales introduced himself not as a professor, a scientist, or a decorated figure, but as a fisherman, an organization leader, and a simple citizen. He delivered the address under this year’s graduation theme, “Just Harmony.”

He said he was born by the sea in Catbalogan, Samar, the child of fisherfolk-farmers who divided their days between planting cassava, corn, and bananas and paddling out to sea. He learned the value of rowing at age 7.

His formal education did not go beyond the third grade, and he said he did not finish the fourth grade.

Poverty drove the family from their hometown to Cavite, he said. There he washed jeepneys, worked as a pin boy at a bowling alley, learned to drive, and drove for hire before returning to the sea in Mariveles, Bataan.

Back at sea, he witnessed the water turn dirty, catches grow scarce, and fishing grounds shrink even as boats grew larger and voyages stretched farther.

That experience, he said, pushed him to organize fellow fisherfolk from the barangay to the municipal, provincial, and national levels, eventually forming PANGISDA Pilipinas. He said the group was built to give a voice to people long unheard, not to gain power.

On leadership, Rosales said, “Ang tunay na lider ay hindi ang nauuna upang kilalanin. Ang tunay na lider ay ang unang handang makinig.” (“The true leader is not the one who is first to be recognized. The true leader is the one who is first ready to listen.”)

He said the organization banned illegal fishing among its members, arguing that fisherfolk cannot defend the sea while destroying it themselves.

Rosales tied the graduation theme to justice, saying there can be no genuine harmony without it. “Sapagkat walang tunay na harmoniya kung wala munang katarungan,” he said. (“Because there is no true harmony without justice first.”)

He challenged the graduates to leave the world they grew up in, visit communities, and listen to farmers, fisherfolk, workers, indigenous peoples, and voiceless youth.

He urged them to stay critical and to ask who truly benefits from projects that promise development, and whether those projects protect the environment and improve people’s lives.

Rosales, who began fishing at age 9 with his father, said the struggle for the environment and for livelihoods does not end with one person. “Maaaring matapos ang aming buhay, ngunit hindi dapat matapos ang aming adhikain,” he said. (“Our lives may end, but our cause must not end.”)

Addressing his daughter, Rosa, he said his greatest dream was not only to see her graduate but to see her grow with compassion for others and for the nation. He urged her, should she one day face her generation’s challenges, to “piliin mong maging bahagi ng solusyon, at hindi ng pananahimik” (“choose to be part of the solution, and not of the silence”).

He thanked the parents present, saying the diplomas their children held bore the marks of their sacrifices, patience, and hope.

Rosales closed with a lesson he said the sea had taught him. “Ang dagat ay hindi lamang minamana. Ito ay ipinagkakatiwala,” he said, adding that the same is true of the nation, which is entrusted to each generation to improve for the next. (“The sea is not merely inherited. It is entrusted.”)

He left the graduates with a final charge: “Huwag kayong maging mga taong nagtagumpay lamang. Maging mga tao kayong nagbigay ng saysay sa tagumpay.” (“Do not be people who merely succeeded. Be people who gave meaning to success.”)