The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said “continuing incursion of China in the Spratlys threaten not only the livelihood of Filipino fisherfolk, but also the food security of millions of Filipinos.”
In a statement, the group stressed the Spratlys fishing grounds contributes “at least 20 percent in the total fish production in the Philippines every year.”
Fishermen belonging to the group held yesterday a rally at the Chinese consulate in Makati “to protest the installation of cruise and surface-to-air missiles on three of the seven artificial islands that China has seized from the Philippines in the Spratly Islands.”
Pamalakaya noted that “the Kalayaan Group of Islands consists of 50 islets located 280 nautical miles off the province of Palawan, making it a part of the Philippines’ extended continental shelf as declared by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”
This declaration has been refuted by China which has laid claim over the islands.
Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap said yesterday’s rally was “to show that the Filipino people will not be cowed by whatever sophisticated military technologies they fl aunt in our territory.”
The fisherfolk group also lambasted Pres. Duterte for his “lack of decisive action to assert the country’s sovereign and territorial rights.”
