SUPAG Insights - March 2025

THE BUTANDING’S CASE: A CLASH ON ETHICS

ARVIN C. REVAGORDA

ABSTRACT

            Humans live and evolve in a world surrounded by the natural environment, especially that of animals. We coexisted alongside animals from time immemorial, treating them as pets or using them in hunting, farming, protection, food, and clothing. Domesticated animals are not only instrumentally valuable as mankind’s emotional support and companion in life, but also economically valuable in uplifting our living conditions. This is, practically, the case of the ‘Butanding’ Whale Shark in Tan-awan, Oslob, Cebu. Butanding is supposed to be “wild” and not domesticated. Nevertheless, like a pet, it became dependent on the food the fisher folks gave. In a sense, it remains wild that no one owns it, which explains why it is not in a ‘net cage’ but free to move around and even escape to the vast sea. But they stayed. Why? The constant giving of food by the same people, in the same area, with the same boat at a specific time, has conditioned their behavior. Consequently, its presence in the region brought economic transformation to the Tan- awan village, making it one of the eco-tourist spots in the Philippines, as resorts, restaurants, sari sari stores, scuba diving companies, and tourism tours were built, giving decent jobs to the local people from 2011 until the present.

        While in this Whale Shark-based eco-tourism, the life of human beings has improved, we could not, honestly, say the same with the life of Butanding, as living their life with tourists became chaotic and unhealthy, changing their biological and behavioral patterns from being wild into “everyone’s pet.” They become dependent on the food they receive instead of looking for it, which is not even the “right food,” making their diet unhealthy. Instead of staying deep in the ocean, they stayed in shallow waters, constantly stressed by the presence of humans, prone to dangerous chemicals used by humans, making them vulnerable to diseases. As migratory species, they are not supposed to stay in one site for prolonged periods as they need to go to deep waters to mate with their species and give birth to other whales. They have ecological roles to fulfill. If they fail to perform this function, then, in time, they will be extinct, and this may eventually cause disruptions to the natural life of other fish species.

        Thus, some questions should be raised: Is there ethical justification for Whale Shark-Based ecotourism, especially since humans gain more benefits at the expense of the life of the Butanding? Or is the life of Butanding more valuable than human life, especially since freeing them might now put the Tan-awan people to suffer the setback of returning to their poverty conditions? Or can they maintain their mutual relationship by ensuring “balanced benefits” for both? Moreover, what might be its ethical justification? This paper aims to answer all these questions.