Oceana sues government over vessel monitoring system

MANILA, Philippines — Oceana Philippines is set to sue the government for failure to install vessel monitoring for all commercial fishing vessels.

The company said it would proceed with its plan to file a continuing mandamus against the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources despite despite the latter’s issuance of Fisheries Administrative Order 260.

Continuing mandamus is a writ issued by a court in an environmental case directing any agency to perform an act decreed by final judgment which shall remain effective until judgment is fully satisfied.

“Their issuance did not even include the definition of highly migratory and straddling fish and why are they limiting the vessel monitoring for those kind of species? It is confusing and it is not a compliance of the mandate of the Amended Fisheries Code,” Oceana vice president Gloria Ramos told reporters.

“The law did not make any distinction and Oceana was part of the technical working group which crafted the draft. And that was not included. The original draft was okay with us because it covered everything and then suddenly, this?” she added.

Under the rules of the civil for environmental cases and even under the amended Fisheries Code, any citizen can sue the government if there is improper or no implementation at all of certain laws and rules.

Oceana argued that the law mandates BFAR to require vessel monitoring measures for all commercial fishing vessels, and not to any specific type of fishing vessels.

The group noted that with the recent issuance, coverage has been illegally narrowed to specific types of vessels targeting certain fish stocks.

“These are mostly vessels which weigh 3.1 to less than 30 gross tons, which are the most prevalent in illegally encroaching municipal waters. The issued regulation sows confusion as it narrows down the type of vessels covered by the requirement, which is patently against the law,” Ramos said.

“(The case) will also  include the delineation of municipal waters, the fisheries management fund where they fail to give incentives to enforcers and local government units, as well as the registration of commercial fishing vessels. Everything that they failed to do,” Ramos said.

BFAR assistant director Drusila Bayate said  there would be another consultation with stakeholders.