EDITORIAL – Unacceptable importation

Visiting the Indonesian capital Jakarta last September, President Marcos said he was obsessing over the Philippines’ continuing importation of galunggong or round scad – a situation that he said he found hard to accept.

Galunggong is called the poor man’s fish in this country, although at current prices, it is almost as pricey as other popular food fish such as big-eyed scad or matang baka, mackerel or alumahan and bonito or tulingan.

All these fish species together with moonfish or bilong-bilong are covered by a special import order for 25,000 metric tons of fish dated Nov. 10 issued by the Department of Agriculture. Of the allowed importation, the DA allotted 80 percent to the commercial fishing sector and the remaining 20 percent to fisheries associations and cooperatives. The import clearances are valid for 45 days, until Jan. 30 next year, with the importations meant to stabilize domestic supply during the closed fishing season from Dec. 1 this year until Feb. 28, 2023.

Consumers appreciate stable supply and prices, but the better way of doing this is to boost local production. Small-scale fisherfolk have been calling for greater government support in terms of access to funding and equipment, to allow them to fish in deeper waters. In the West Philippine Sea, their livelihoods are already seriously threatened by the presence of Chinese coast guard ships escorting massive commercial fishing fleets and driving away Filipinos. The problems have been aggravated this year by soaring fuel prices.

Commercial operators have sought DA approval to enter municipal waters to get the sardines they need. They explained that planktons, the main food for sardines, have been moving closer to the shore. But small-scale fishers believe the large operators will only encroach on their catch and kill their livelihoods. Instead the marginalized fisherfolk want an organized and efficient system of getting their catch to the markets at reasonable prices with minimal wastage, so that sardine canners do not turn to cheaper imports.

The problems besetting small-scale fisherfolk are similar to those that have plagued rice farmers for a long time. President Marcos, who has concurrently taken on the agriculture portfolio, has made the right noises about the need to wean the country from imported agricultural products. Apart from obsessing over the importation of galunggong mostly from China, the President should also find it unacceptable that the Philippines is buying even the bulk of its salt requirements from other countries. He will need to move decisively to turn his aspirations on food security into reality.