Gov’t told to enforce fishing laws
A PARTY-LIST lawmaker has called on the government to put more muscle into implementing laws on illegal fishing and slap violators with the stiffest penalties to prevent overfishing and help increase the country’s fish stock.
“While President Marcos said last year that he was not imposing a fishing ban, the government should fully implement existing fishery laws and regulations that would deter illegal fishing activities and the encroachment of commercial fishing vessels into municipal waters,” Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Tuesday a 5.2-percent decrease in fisheries production in the fourth quarter of 2023. For the entire year, fisheries output was down by 6.5%, lower than the 5% decrease in 2022.
“There is a need to monitor cases of overfishing and illegal fishing as this is the main reason of the decrease in fish stocks,” Mr. Lee said in Filipino.
To stem encroachments, he called for a strict compliance among commercial fishing vessels to install a vessel monitoring system (VMS) and electronic monitoring system (EMS), noting a low 50% compliance to the guideline in 2022.
In his State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. called to amend the country’s Fisheries Code “to incorporate and strengthen science-based analysis and determination of fishing areas.”
Proposals to amend Republic Act No. 8550, the Fisheries Code, remain at the House committee on aquaculture and fisheries resources. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz