“He was born by the sea, grew up by the sea and chooses to die by the sea.”
Of all the people Pauline Amelinckx met while filming Pusong Bayani, one fisherman in Zambales stayed with her.
Despite growing challenges to making a living in the West Philippine Sea, he remained determined to continue fishing in the place he had always called home.
“He wants to continue to fish in that place for the rest of his life if it were up to him,” Amelinckx recalled.
His story reflects a reality faced by fishing communities along the West Philippine Sea, where foreign incursions and the presence of foreign vessels have made access to traditional fishing grounds more difficult for some fishermen, putting added pressure on livelihoods that have depended on these waters for generations.
For Gerald Anderson, hearing stories like these directly from the people living them made Pusong Bayani different from his other projects.
“I’ve done a lot of very fulfilling projects, but this was completely different,” Anderson said. “We were on the ground. We got to talk to the people who are directly affected by what’s happening in the West Philippine Sea.”
These firsthand encounters are at the heart of Pusong Bayani, a four-part online reality series that seeks to take Filipinos beyond political and geopolitical discussions and closer to the people living the realities of the West Philippine Sea every day.
Led by Anderson, an actor and Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary Captain, together with Amelinckx, Argel Saycon, and Gifer Fernandez, the series takes the cast across coastal communities, where they meet fisherfolk, soldiers, families, and others whose lives and livelihoods are tied to the sea.
The first episode is now out, opening in Palawan as the cast visits the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Western Command headquarters before meeting the Buena Vista coastal community and seeing how the AFP’s work connects with the lives of Filipinos in the area.
For Gifer Fernandez, meeting these communities showed why the West Philippine Sea cannot be understood only as a dispute over territory.
“It’s not only about the argument in the West Philippine Sea itself,” Fernandez said. “What every Filipino deserves to know are the stories of the people whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by what is happening there.”
Among those he met were fishermen who have had to look elsewhere for work just to continue providing for their families.
For Amelinckx, a freediver and marine conservation advocate, the journey also revealed another side of the issue: what is happening beneath the water.
“I saw firsthand the destruction on our ocean floor,” she said.
But she also witnessed efforts to restore it—from divers helping rehabilitate giant clams to fisherfolk helping conserve sea cucumbers and reefs.
“They reaffirm in me the belief that no matter where we come from, or what we do in life, we can all play a part in protecting our country and our resources,” Amelinckx said.
Presented by the Center for Information Resilience and Integrity Studies (CIRIS) and produced in partnership with Hot & Fresh Productions, Pusong Bayani uses storytelling to make the complex realities surrounding the West Philippine Sea more relatable and accessible to Filipinos.
But Pusong Bayani is not only about hardship. It is also about the people who continue to move forward despite it.
For Argel Saycon, those people are the heroes of the series.
“Everyone is bayani no matter how big or small their role is,” Saycon said. “My heart goes out especially to the people directly affected and who fight for their livelihood every single day. Their heroism is one of a kind.”
Amelinckx hopes bringing these realities closer to Filipinos will inspire action rather than leave audiences discouraged.
“Pusong Bayani was not created to share sad realities,” she said. “It was created…to share hope—the kind of hope that creates a spark in each of us that makes us believe we can all be part of change.”
For Anderson, that begins with seeing the West Philippine Sea not as somebody else’s concern, but as one that belongs to every Filipino.
“I hope they stop seeing this as someone else’s issue,” he said. “Issue natin ’to as a country.”
Pusong Bayani is now streaming on www.youtube.com/@pusongbayaniph.
The journey, however, does not have to end with watching. Viewers can turn awareness into action by signing the Digital Pledge, joining community activities, or supporting the people and livelihoods connected to the West Philippine Sea.
Watch the series and find out how you can take part at www.pusongbayani.ph.
