Members of the fishers’ group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) denounced the unjust provisions of the amended Philippine Fisheries Code, in a protest rally in front of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) central office on November 19.
PAMALAKAYA strongly condemned the provisions of the Republic Act 10654 or the amended Philippine Fisheries Code, especially when it “sweepingly” categorizes traditional fishing methods of small fishers as illegal, and subjecting them to hefty fines and penalties.
According to the fishers, those who are unable to comply to the said amendments in the Fisheries Code are subjected to fines amounting to P2,500 as well as confiscation of fish catch and gear.
“We tried our best to comply with this law; we have ourselves and our fishing boats registered, and never in our lives that we engage to any illegal methods of fishing, yet the maritime enforcers always find ways to penalize and fine us on trumped-up offenses,” PAMALAKAYA spokesperson Ronnel Arambulo said during the protest.
The fishers’ group questioned the fines that the so-called maritime law enforcers are collecting from fisherfolks, accusing the latter of extortion.
“We are being fined with P2, 500 for every alleged offense that the maritime enforcers themselves are unable to identify. They won’t even provide us fine payment receipts so there is a high probability that this is not law enforcement but extortion. The presence of these abusive law enforcers intimidates us from going into our traditional fishing grounds, resulting to further diminution of our income,” Arambulo said.
“The BFAR is accountable to the fishers who are made to suffer by this existing fisheries law that is being enforced by the abusive MARINA. We want to know if these so-called maritime law enforcers are really mandated to collect hefty fines and confiscate our fish catch,” Arambulo added.
The group also pointed out the that the protesting fishers came from Rizal and Cavite provinces who used to donate their surplus catch to several community pantries in Metro Manila earlier this year.
“When we participated to the mutual aid efforts through community pantries, we never asked anything from the government in return. But now that the existing fisheries law is taking its toll to our livelihood, we demand that its burdening and unjust provisions be scrapped. This law doesn’t do anything in protecting our fishing waters, rather, it is being used by abusive and corrupt maritime enforcers against small fishers,” Arambulo said.
What is Republic Act 10654 or the amended Philippine Fisheries Code?
The Republic Act 10654 or also known as the amended Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 is an act aiming to deter and eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. The amendments deal with several aspects of the previous fisheries code, specifying new management and conservation measures to conserve and manage living marine resources, fisheries and aquaculture in the Philippines.
But according to the PAMALAKAYA, these amendments are considered as repressive as it made the fishing restrictions such as the registration and licensing schemes massively affect the fish production of small fisherfolks, while also depleting the fish catch in the municipal waters due to continuous entry of commercial fishing fleets that exploit municipal water resources.
In the 2017 report that the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released, during the 3rd quarter of the year 2017, the total volume of production for fisheries was estimated at 971 thousand metric tons, 3.89% less than the same quarter of the year 2016. According to the statistics, municipal fisheries production went down by 0.68 during the quarter alone.
“Small fishers bear the brunt of high costs of boat registration and licensing fees, failure to comply dreads them with another costly fines and strict penalties like community service, confiscation of fishing gears and worse, imprisonment,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA Chairperson said in a statement.
