Fishery plan to marginalize fishers, serve foreign needs

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    ANGELES CITY- The ComprehensiveNational Fisheries Industry DevelopmentPlan 2016-2025 (CNFIDP) of thegovernment will lead to the “plunder” ofthe country’s fishery resources whiledisplacing medium and small fisherfolk.

    The Pambansang Lakas ng KilusangMamamalakaya ng Pilipinas(Pamalakaya) cited this as reason inobjecting to the plan being pushed bythe Bureau of Fisheries and AquaticResources (BFAR).

    The plan was the highlight of theNational Fisheries Industry Summithosted by BFAR over the weekend.

    Anakpawis Partylist Rep. FernandoHicap said “we oppose the fisheriesplan as it clearly does not promote the national and democratic interest of the Filipino people, but the plunder of fisheries and aquatic resources by foreign countries, at the expense of putting the sector into deeper impoverished state.”

    Hicap said “the plan is dedicated to further shift fishery production from municipal and commercial fishing towards aquaculture.”

    He cited BFAR statistics indicating that in 2003, the share of aquaculture sector in fish production was only at 40 percent or 1.4 million metric tons valued at P37.2 billion, and that in 2012, it skyrocketed to 52 percent at 2.5 million metric tons valued at P92.3 billion.

    This indicated worsening marginalization of small fishers deriving livelihood from offshore waters, he added.

    Hicap also said the sad plight of small fishers has also been aggravated by amendments to the Fisheries Code of 1998 which he described as “a big blow to small and medium-scale commercial fishing operators.”

    “It imposed penalties that would put medium and small fishers in bankruptcy. With smaller fishing operations wiped out, the rich and abundant fisheries resources are all for the largescale operators to plunder,” he noted.

    Hicap also claimed that the new fisheries plan “is crafted to enhance the export-orientation of the fishery sector.”

    In 2014, the country exported 316,000 metric tons valued at P56.3 billion. In 2012, largest export or 22 percent went to the US, 12 percent to China, 10 percent to Hong Kong, 7 percent to Japan, 6 percent to Germany, 5 percent to Taiwan and 4 percent to UK. This, even as the country’s import amounted 280,000 metric tons at P12.2 billion, a large chunk or 44 percent from China, he noted.

    “The fisheries plan is only to fortify the clutches of foreign monopoly on the fisheries resources, with the rich few and foreign corporations to enjoy the abundance of our seas, while putting the Filipino fisherfolk into being the poorest of the poor,” Hicap said.

    Anakpawis asserted that a comprehensive fisheries development plan “should be first and foremost nationalist and democratic, considering the interest of local fisherfolk instead of catering to the interest of the affluent private sector and foreign countries.

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