Just along the lakeshore surrounding the Taal Volcano, Sitio Bucal in Brgy. Gulod is home to 62 families whose main livelihood is cage fishing. One of them is Isabel Solis, 51 years old, and her other seven family members.

During the Taal eruption, Isabel’s family took temporary shelter with host families and/or friends and not in designated evacuation centers. Their fish cage financer helped them. Although they were more comfortable in their temporary shelter compared to the crowded evacuation centers, they did not receive as many relief packs as the evacuees who sought refuge in designated and recognized evacuation centers.

With their barangay situated within the 7-kilometer radius of the Taal volcano, they were only allowed to go back to their community when the alert status was lowered to Alert Level 2 and the permanent lockdown on their area was lifted on February 14.

As their livelihood is dependent on fishing, her husband a fish cage caretaker and herself a fish vendor, they were one of the many whose livelihood was greatly impacted by the heavy ashfall and accompanying volcanic earthquakes that damaged the fish cages and killed a great number of fish in the lake.
While they were starting to recover from the aftermath of the eruption, a new disaster hits them when the Luzon-wide community quarantine locked them down in their still-partially damaged houses. The restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic further deprived them of their means of livelihood as there is no access to transportation making it impossible to sell fish and buy some fishing materials and gears. The dwindling harvest since the fish are not yet of market-quality due to the damages brought by the eruption made things worse.

During the lockdown period, they greatly depended on the assistance given by the local government. Their income could barely cover their family’s needs.
Isabel is very thankful for the ₱1,000.00 multi-purpose cash assistance she received from STPRC in partnership with CDRC and Global Giving on June 5, 2020. She said that she will use the money to buy food for her eight-member family.