The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas( Pamalakaya) said declaring the lagoon as marine protected area “might again result to depriving the Filipino fishers of their right to livelihood and fishing zones.”
In a statement, Pamalakaya said such declaration “might bring back the situation where Filipino fishers are not allowed to enter our own territory, although this time it will be our own law and government that will prohibit them, not China.”
“Filipino fishers have yet to recover after years of deprivation and restriction from the West Philippine Sea. We fear that declaring it as marine sanctuary would pave the way for another fishing blockade,” Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap said.
Pamalakaya instead urged the President “to develop a utilization plan that will maximize our marine resources in the West Philippine Sea for the country’s domestic needs without putting the fishers’ livelihood at stake.”
The group also said, however, that “active assertion of our territory is still crucial to completely regain our control in the long-disputed waters, so we can manage and protect our own resources from rampant exploitation by foreign-owned large and highly sophisticated fishing fleets.”
