Commercial fishermen fight for survival

Galunggong, otherwise known as the poor man‘s fish, will soon disappear from public markets. That is if a new order issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will not be recalled, according to the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federations, Inc. (APFFI).

In a press conference held at the Aristocrat Restaurant inside the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City, officers of the association took turns in lambasting DENR Administrative Order 17 which takes effect tomorrow and which sets the guidelines for delineating/delimiting municipal waters.

Alonso L. Tan, president of APFFI, said the bone of contention is in the definition of municipal waters, where only municipal or subsistence fishermen are allowed to fish.

As defined under the Fisheries Code, municipal waters are the marine waters between the general coastline including offshore islands and 15 kilometers from such coastline.

On the other hand, the National Mapping and Resource Information Agency (NAMRIA), which prepared the guidelines of DENR AO 17, said the delineation of municipal waters shall be reckoned — not from the municipality’s general coastline but — from the coastlie of its farthest island or outermost islet. This method of reckoning applies the so-called "archipelagic principle."

The trouble with such definition, Tan pointed out, is that it will have the effect of driving commercial fishermen away from 70 to 80 percent of their traditional fishing grounds. The solution, according to Tan, is not as simple as going farther out to sea to fish.

Roberto del Rosario, former president of the Inter-island Deep Sea Fishing Association and adviser of APFFI, explained that fish habitate only in shallow waters or within the so-called insular shelf, where the waters are no more than 100 fathoms in depth. Beyond this point, he said, there are no fish to catch. The reason is simple. When the water is too deep, sunlight can not penetrate through to the bottom where algae can grow. Thus there will be no food for fish to live on.

So, what will happen if commercial fishermen will not be allowed to fish within municipal waters as defined by DENR AO 17?

To start with, commercial fishermen include not only those who own a fleet of large fishing vessels but also those who operate vessels as small as three tonners. These small vessels, according to APFFI officials, can run at a maximum of five knots or 30 kilometers per hour. If the implementation of AO 17 will push through, some of these fishing vessels will have to travel as far as 45 kilometers to be able to fish legally. But the worst part of it is that there will be no fish to catch.

Tan and del Rosario painted a grim scenario where commercial fishing ventures will fold up one after another because there will be no catch to sell. Consequently, commercial fish species like roundscad, or more popularly known as galunggong, will disappear from the public markets. Other species that commercial fishing vessels normally haul in are Indian sardines or tamban, skipjack or gulyasan, fibrated sardines or tunsoy, frigate tuna or tulingan, anchovies or dilis, slipmouth or sapsap, yellowfin and big-eyed tuna or albacore and tambakol, Indian mackerel or alumahan, big-eyed scad or matangbaka and other species.

The production of the commercial fishing sector is by no means insignificant. Last year, they hauled in a total of 946,485 metric tons of fish, roughly a third of the country’s total production, with the other two-thirds produced in nearly equal proportion by the municipal fishing sector and aquaculture.

In terms of value, the commercial fishing sector contributed 2.3 percent (at current prices) of last year’s gross domestic product.

If DENR AO 17 will be implemented, Tan expressed fears that the commercial fishing industry will die a natural death and bring down with it the livelihood of some 350,000 laborers who are directly employed by commercial fishing vessels. Add to these the thousands of suppliers, merchants and middlemen who benefit directly or indirectly from the trade of commercial fishing.

All these issues were raised in a letter which the association sent to President Arroyo last June 18. But the APFFI would rather that DENR voluntarily suspend or recall AO 17.

It is not only the APFFI which is objecting to the implementation of the controversial order. Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources On Oct. 8, 2000, Director Malcom Sarmiento issued a memorandum to then Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Antonio Cerilles stating his objection to the proposed DENR NAMRIA guidelines for the delineation of municipal waters.

A meeting between the DENR and BFAR was scheduled sometime in December of that year to resolve and settle the definition of municipal waters and other issues. However, the effort was overtaken by events which saw the fall of the Estrada administration the rise to the presidency of then Vice President Gloria Arroyo.

On March 9, 2001, Sarmiento wrote Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor to register his strong objections to the definition of municipal waters as contained in AO 17.

Montemayor tried to patch things up and arranged for a meeting in Malacañang between himself, Sarmiento and Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez.

The effort apparently failed to accomplish its purpose as Alvarez, on June 11, 2001, signed AO 17 which was subsequently published in a national newspaper and is due for implementation starting tomorrow.

As a last recourse, the APFFI and its allies have hired a lawyer who as of this writing was preparing to go to court first thing tomorrow morning to file an appeal for an injunction.