Most Pinoys want Chinese fishermen destroying West Philippine Sea resources arrested — SWS
MANILA, Philippines — Majority of Filipinos want the government to “arrest and prosecute” Chinese fishermen destroying the marine wealth in the West Philippine Sea, a new Social Weather Stations survey released Friday found.
Results of a June 22-26 poll of 1,200 adults nationwide showed 63% strongly agreeing and 24% “somewhat” agreeing that the Philippine government should apprehend Chinese poachers causing destruction in the resource-rich waters.
Meanwhile, 2% of respondents said they strongly disagree while 3% said they somewhat disagree.
That yielded a net agreement score of +81.
Ties between the Philippines and China have significantly improved under President Rodrigo Duterte, who has set aside a landmark ruling from a United Nations-backed tribunal that struck down Beijing’s “Nine Dash line” claim that encompasses most of the South China Sea.
Duterte's management of the maritime dispute has frustrated nationalists, who criticized his seeming inaction towards China's military buildup in the strategic waterway.
Last April, ABS-CBN News reported that the Chinese continue to extract giant clams at Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground off the coast of Zambales on the western shores of the Philippine island of Luzon.
In a September 2017 report, Washington-based CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative reported that South China Sea — one of the world’s vital marine ecosystems — is on the edge of a fisheries collapse due to overfishing encouraged by government subsidies and harmful fishing practices.
The new SWS survey was commissioned by think tank Stratbase ADR Institute, which held a forum in Taguig City focusing on the "environmental crisis" in the West Philippine Sea three years since Manila sued China in an arbitration court and won.
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