Hon. Allan B. Cos is the 4th Vice Mayor of the City of Masbate following the recent May 14, 2007 local elections. He served as the topomost City councilor from 2004 to 2007 and enacted legislations of importance and consequence relative to environmental protection, tourism, livelihood development, good governance and public accountability.

He graduated at Manila University and practiced his profession as a Lawyer for several years in Metro Manila where he gained solid experience in enforcing the rights and protecting the interest of people, in legal research, in prosecuting and defending cases. His affiliation with big law firms and government agencies for reforms in Metro Manila accorded him a good name in law practice.

A simple man dedicated to serve fellow Masbateños, especially the poor and the needy. He is pursuing a coherent program and direction for the attainment of real changes and genuine reforms in the government, the reigning of peace and justice and the realization of spiritual, social and economic upliftment.

Hon. Cos vowed to establish a strong bond between the legislative and executive branches of the government to answer Masbate's quest for good governance.

He hailed from humble beginnings, his mother being a dedicated housewife while his father is a regular government employee. He is the fourth is the brood of seven. He is a loving husband to JOCELYN TUMLOS, a school teacher from Mandaon, Masbate whom he has five children, all successful professionals, here and abroad.

CAWAYAN, Masbate—He grew up a marginal fisherman in a poor coastal village of this sleepy town along the coast of Asid Gulf, the sea body that separates Bicol from the Western Visayas region.

Now, Arturo Marcaida Jr. is a successful entrepreneur and employs over 250 workers. He makes huge sums of money by raising crabs in the gulf he protects from illegal-fishing activities.

Marcaida owns and runs the multimillion-peso AMJ-Morning Joy Enterprises here, a large-scale crabmeat-processing facility that supplies both the domestic and international markets.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) recognizes him as the “crab king” of Bicol because of his supremacy in the fisheries business not only in Masbate but in the region.

Asid Gulf used to be sea of dreams for Marcaida. He used to go fishing there with other marginal fishermen from their village of Malbug. The gulf area is also where he spent his childhood and teenage years.

But his parents have a different dream for him, so he was sent to school and completed a degree in business management from the Philippine School of Business Administration in Manila.

He returned to Bicol with a college diploma in 1990, and was employed by the Philips Seafoods Corp., an American firm engaged in crabmeat processing with factories in nearby Peña Island, where he learned the rudiments of the business.

Philips Seafoods, however, closed down four years later due to a management crisis at its head office in Bantayan, Cebu.

Instead of leaving his village for “greener pastures,” Marcaida used the separation pay he got from Philips Seafoods to buy three fishing boats and ventured into the fish and crab business.

In the middle of 1995, Philips Seafoods resumed operations and the Peña Island plant was placed under Marcaida’s management. In August 1996 he obtained a part-ownership deal with its American owner, Jack Robert Bourdon, who gave Marcaida full authority to take over the P1.5-million processing plant and P350,000  in cash as working capital.

In exchange, Marcaida was to deliver crabmeat to the firm’s new plant in Banica, Roxas City, where crabmeat is processed for export. All deliveries Marcaida made were taken and paid for by the company. 

To ensure a steady supply of crabmeat, Marcaida bought 14 more boats and established more buying and cooking stations on Peña Island and eight neighboring island-barangays along the coast of Asid Gulf.

Today Marcaida has 17 fishing boats and five more as backup boats that he makes available to fishermen, including the fishing nets on a 50:50 sharing scheme, where half of the catch goes to the fisherman and the rest to him.

Through the deal, Marcaida makes a net income of about P110,000 a month and provides livelihood to dozens of fishermen and their families.

The bulk of his income comes from the processed crabmeat he supplies Philips Seafoods. From the combined sources of income, he makes about P200,000 a month. But more than that, he employs more than 250 people and indirectly about 50 others.

He also makes another P125,000 a month from the sale of dried crab shells which, otherwise, would have gone to waste. He delivers the shells to an Iranian company based in the Visayas.

Two years ago, he acquired full ownership of the Philips Seafoods plant on Peña Island and renamed it AMJ-Morning Joy Enterprises.

What is notable about Marcaida is that he not only leads other fishermen in reaping the rich resources of the sea but also ensures that the resources are properly taken cared of so that the source of their livelihood could be sustainable, according to Jose Dayao, DA regional executive director for Bicol.

Aware that the sustainability of his livelihood and business enterprise hinges on the efficient and wise use of the marine resources and proper care of the habitat, Marcaida strongly advocates the use of nondestructive fishing and the protection of the mangroves.

As president of Peña Fisherfolks Association (PEFA), Marcaida leads his fellow fishermen in patrolling their fishing grounds to thwart illegal activities.

Having attended trainings on environmental management, such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point and Environment Impact Assessment, Marcaida instructs his fellow fishermen not to catch sponge crab or those about to spawn and other endangered marine species. If ever these are accidentally caught they are returned to the sea or placed in a special hatchery.

His efforts are paying off because Asid Gulf has maintained its classification as one of the few remaining seawaters in the country which has not been overfished and whose production capacity has not depleted to an alarming level, Dayao said.

Over the years Marcaida has mastered the peculiarities of the sea and the fish and crab behavior in relation to water temperature, wind direction, lunar and tidal cycles. He and his group have adopted catch-location testing that enables them to determine what time and where the fish usually gather.

“They perfectly know when to drop their nets and when to haul them,” Dayao said.

Marcaida had also instilled among his fellow fishermen that fishing should be a team effort and the bounty of the sea generously shared. Thus, when a group of fishermen chances upon a school of fish, they would signal another group nearby to join them.

An innovator and a dynamic entrepreneur, Marcaida has developed a crab trap—a modified version of what he saw on HBO television. His crab trap uses GI wire No. 6 covered with 019 nylon and single-knot mesh and fitted with a nonreturn valve, bait and bamboo floaters, Dayao added.