GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines — The southernmost city of General Santos is not only known for being the hometown of boxing champions such as presidential aspirant Manny Pacquiao, but also for its high quality tuna.
So how does Manny Pacquiao plan to strengthen the tuna industry in his hometown and fisheries in the entire country?
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Pacquiao assured fishers of the Philippine Coast Guard’s protection if he wins in the May polls. He will also push for the adoption of more technologies to boost the yield of tuna players, which will provide more jobs to locals.
“Maglaan tayo ng pondo para dito sa fisherfolk natin para matulungan sila nang hindi tayo mag-import ng isda o galunggong, instead mag-export pa tayo,” he told reporters Tuesday.
(We will provide funds for our fisherfolk to help them so we will no longer have to import fish or galunggong. Instead, we will export.)
The Philippines is among the top tuna producers in the world. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, South Cotabato—where General Santos is geographically located within—produced 43,446.95 metric tons of yellowfin tuna in 2020.
Pacquiao earlier said that it was embarrassing for the Philippines, an archipelagic nation, to import fish after the Department of Agriculture allowed the importation of 60,000 metric tons of pelagic fish such as mackerel and galunggong.
Study Kaliwa Dam
If elected president, Pacquaio said he will study whether the China-backed Kaliwa Dam will help or endanger the public.
“Kung makakabuti siya, bakit natin di itutuloy? Kung hindi naman, bakit natin itutuloy?” he said.
(If it will be beneficial, why do we have to scrap it? If not, why won’t we continue it?)
Dumagat-Remontado communities in Rizal and Quezon provinces signed a memorandum of agreement on the P12.2-billion Kaliwa Dam project, which will be built on their ancestral land in the Sierra Madre mountain range. Several indigenous peoples leaders, however, said the signing was railroaded.
The MOA is part of securing the free, prior and informed consent of communities before the government can construct the dam project. Kaliwa Dam will be built to meet the increasing demand for water of people from Metro Manila and surrounding areas.
Groups opposed to the project said it will inundate the land and livelihood of Dumagat communities and destroy mountains and forests in Sierra Madre.
Disclosure: This story was made possible through the support of Sen. Manny Pacquiao's campaign, which arranged transportation and accommodations for the Philstar.com reporting team. This article was produced following editorial guidelines and the Pacquiao campaign did not have input on how the story would be written.