Pamalakaya denounced newly installed director Eduardo Gongona of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) for his alleged “militaristic approach in resolving illegal activities in Philippine waters” under the Bantay Laot program.
“The Bantay Laot program aims to equip the fi shermen with weapons and run after the government’s so called illegal, unreported and unregulated fi shing. This might create rift between the fi sherfolk and won’t actually solve the illegal activities in our fi shing waters,” Paamalakaya warned.
Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap said “this will be small fi shermen against small fishermen. Instead of uniting the small fi shers for the protection of our marine resources, BFAR wants to stir up a hornet’s nest between them by arming each other and running after one another.”
Only recently, BFAR provided arms to some 600 fi shers in Davao for the Bantay Laot program, he noted.
Hicap also warned that “arming the fi shermen might lead to vigilantism resulting to lawlessness and indiscriminate killings in the seas. This is no diff erent from the creation of lawless vigilante groups during the then Pres. Corazon Aquino’s time.”
Pamalakaya stressed “it is the obligation of the Philippine Coast Guard and armed forces to protect and watch out for illegal activities in the sea committed by no other than foreign illegal poachers and large fi shing fl eets going in and out of the municipal fi shing waters.”
“It is the government’s duty to protect our seas and watch for the welfare of our fi shermen. The fi sherfolk cannot afford to take up arms and run after the others. They should be at sea making livelihood and nothing else,” the group said.
Pamalakaya said fi shermen need support for their daily subsistence, not arms.
Hicap said Bantay Laot program has been made a part of BFAR’s fi ve-year development program called Comprehensive National Fisheries Industry Development Plan for 2016-2020 which aims to make the country’s fi sheries products “globally competitive” by the year 2020.
“Part of the plan is to advance BFAR’s military facilities and equipment by allotting a budget of P6.646 billion for the purchase of patrol boats, white ships, weapons and drones for ‘security’ purposes,” he added.
