Senatoriables urged to ensure sustainable fisheries management

MANILA, Philippines — The fisheries sector, among the country’s poorest, is urging senatorial aspirants to include sustainable fisheries management as an important policy matter.

A proposal to create a separate agency that will give more attention to and support for the sustainable development of the local fisheries and aquatic resources has yet to take off.

“Over time, we saw the lack of action in addressing the worsening poverty in the sector despite the vast oceans and seas that the Philippines has,” said National Anti-Poverty Commission vice chairman Ruperto Aleroza.

The local unit of international organization Oceana recently held a summit to seek the views of candidates on issues of illegal fishing, ocean trash, poverty in coastal communities, dump and fill of coasts as well as the creation of a fisheries department.

However, only Otso Diretso bets Gary Alejano, Chel Diokno, Pilo Hilbay, and Erin Tañada and Makabayan bloc bet Neri Colmenares participated.

Colmenares said structural solutions are always part of any change and that a separate fisheries deparment was needed to rectify conflicting laws to properly monitor the sector.

Diokno, for his part, said the Philippines should seriously consider the creation of a fisheries department and look at how it is being done in other countries to see what kind of model will be effective.

“I am in favor of having a comprehensive program and policy on how we deal with it on our waterways, oceans and rivers as well as with our fish stocks and marine biodiversity,” he said.

Alejano said there should first be an acknowledgement of the country as a maritime nation.  He also proposed the harmonization of policies.

“Poverty in coastal communities, the progressive decline of fish population and catch, the pervasive encroachment of commercial fishing vessels in municipal waters are just some of the issues in fisheries that may not be grabbing the national headlines this election cycle, but they heavily impact in real ways the national economy, food security, the health of our oceans, employment, and our response to the climate crisis,” said Oceana vice president Gloria Ramos.

Even former agriculture secretary William Dar underscored the need to create a fisheries department to protect the marine environment from destructive fishing practices.

Dar said commercial fishers should be provided with modern fishing gear to enable them to go farther into  deep waters.

“The creation of a Department of Fisheries will pave the way for increased funding and intervention in research and development to maximize the potential of our vast territorial waters for food and economic security,” he said.

The sector has been posting negative growth over the last five years. It declined 1.13 percent in 2018.

The Philippines also ranked last among the five fish exporting countries in the ASEAN region in terms of value.

“It is understandable that Indonesia exported more marine products than the Philippines because its territorial waters are four times bigger than us,” Dar said.

“However, Vietnam and Thailand, which are not archipelagic countries like us, are experts in tapping and developing their inland aquaculture production systems and in value-adding aquaculture and marine products,” he added.