ANGELES CITY – The country’s biggest fisher folk alliance urged some 1.8 million small fishermen nationwide to join a “national defiance” against a government move to impose fishing ban in 10 out of 13 major fishing grounds in the country.
The militant Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said the plan of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) was apparently to merely accommodate commitments with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to open local market to fresh fish imports.
“The 1.8 million Filipino fishermen in the country should politically, morally and legally contest this. We ask our fishers to collectively agree to a national defiance against this irresponsible, anti-Filipino and pro-foreign fish plan,” said Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France in a press statement.
It did not give details on how it intended to implement “national defiance.”
The BFAR is eyeing fresh fish importation allegedly to address a pending drop in local fish production due to alleged overfishing. It also has proposed to impose fish bans in 10 out of the 13 major fishing grounds nationwide.
At present, only frozen and chilled fish products are allowed importation into the country.
“The national stock assessment of BFAR is founded on science that is strongly biased in favor of the rich and therefore unpatriotic and unscientific,” Pamalakaya said.
The alliance denied allegations that small fisherfolk are among those responsible for overfishing.
Pamalakaya asked Pres. Aquino to junk the BFAR proposal which would open the country to fresh fish imports from China, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Japan, South Korea, United States of America, Thailand and 13 other countries.
Insisting that the importation plan was dictated by commitments to the WTO, Pamalakaya said that the “country’s adherence to neo-liberal trade policies produced unfavorable results in Philippine agriculture through the dumping of food and agricultural products surpluses of developed countries.”
“We strongly demand the Aquino administration to stop BFAR and the agriculture department from enforcing a nationwide fish ban to justify unbridled importation of fishery products and refrain from draining the country’s dollar reserves to pay for heavy importation,” Pamalakaya said.
It said “the 1. 8 million full time and part time small fishermen can produce and meet the fish needs of 99 million Filipinos and there is no need to import.”
Anakpawis party list Rep. Rafael Mariano noted that BFAR itself reported recently that marine fisheries is a growing industry in the Philippines, thus negating allegations of declining production due to overfishing.
Mariano said that fisheries production grew by 35 percent from 3.93 million metric tons in 2004 to 5.080 million metric tons in 2009.
“The average annual production growth rate within that period was at 5.8 per cent. In 2010, the total volume of fisheries production was 5. 162 million metric tons and grew by 1.61 per cent,” Pamalakaya noted.
The alliance cited Mariano also as noting that the Philippines ranks sixth among the top fish producing countries in the world with its total production of 4. 97 million metric tons of fish, crustaceans, mollusks and aquatic plants including seaweeds.
Pamalakaya noted that already, the allowed importation of frozen and chilled fishery products has been hurting local fishermen.
“The rising scale of fishery importation hampers the livelihood of small fisherfolk and local fish producers. It is favorable only to subsidized imported fish products and disadvantageous to unprotected and unsubsidized local products,” Mariano said.
Pamalakaya also said the country’s WTO commitments since 1995 has worsened agricultural trade deficit.
It quoted IBON Foundation studies indicating $764 million deficit in 1997 and some $794 million in 2002. In 2009, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics estimated the agricultural trade deficit at P140 billion.
