Fisheries plan may displace small fisher folks – lawmaker

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – The Comprehensive National Fisheries Industry Development Plan 2016-2025 (CNFIDP) being pushed by the government will lead to the “plunder” of the country’s  fishery resources while displacing medium and small fisherfolk.

The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) cited this as reason in objecting to the proposal of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ( BFAR).

The plan was the highlight of the National Fisheries Industry Summit that was recently hosted by BFAR.

“We oppose the fisheries plan as it clearly does not promote the national and democratic interest of the Filipino people, but the plunder of fisheries and aquatic resources by foreign countries, at the expense of putting the sector into deeper impoverished state,” said Anakpawis partylist Rep. Fernando Hicap.

The plan is intended to further shift fishery production from municipal and commercial fishing towards aquaculture.

He cited BFAR statistics which showed the share of aquaculture sector in fish production growing to 52 percent in 2012 from only 40 percent in 2003.

This indicated worsening marginalization of small fishers deriving livelihood from offshore waters, he said.

Hicap said the sad plight of small fishers has also been aggravated by amendments to  the Fisheries Code of 1998 which he deacribed as “a big blow to small and medium-scale commercial fishing operators.”

“It imposed penalties that would put medium and small fishers in bankruptcy. With smaller fishing operations  wiped out, the rich and abundant fisheries resources are all for the large-scale operators to plunder, “ he noted.

According to Hicap, the new fisheries plan “is crafted to enhance the export-orientation of the fishery sector.”

In 2014, the country exported 316,000 metric tons valued at P56.3 billion.  In 2012, the largest export or 22 percent  went to the US, 12 percent  to China, 10 percent to Hongkong, seven percent  to Japan, six  percent to Germany, five percent to Taiwan and four percent to UK. 

“The fisheries plan is only to fortify the clutches of foreign monopoly on the fisheries resources, with the rich few and foreign corporations to enjoy the abundance of our seas, while putting the Filipino fisherfolk into  being the poorest of the poor,” Hicap said.

Anakpawis asserted that a comprehensive fisheries development plan “should be first and foremost nationalist and democratic, considering the interest of  local fisherfolk instead of catering to the interest of the affluent private sector and foreign countries.