Photo by Edmundas Stundzius on Unsplash
In the manifesto, the Alliance of Local Government Units Along Samar Bays and Channels (ALSBACH) Inc. said it “strongly opposed” the passing of HB 7853, which proposes to amend section 18 of Republic Act (RA) 8550 or the Fisheries Code of 1998.
Pending with the House Committee on Aquaculture and Fisheries Resources since October last year, HB 7853 seeks to allow Commercial Fishing Boats to operate within the 10.1 to 15 kilometers distance from the shoreline of the City and Municipal Coastal Waters.
This is in violation of the current and amended version of RA 8550, which only allows marginal fisherfolk to fish in city and municipal coastal waters.
Published March 8, 2021, 1:36 PM
The aquaculture sector is ready to file a petition opposing more fish importation should the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) will push for its plan to ease import policy on agricultural commodities, especially fisheries products.
Asis Perez, convenor of food security advocacy group Tugon Kabuhayan, said in a briefing on Monday that NEDA’s proposal is “problematic” and may result in a long-term problem for the country’s aquaculture players, which supplied 53 percent of the country’s total fisheries production in 2020.
“The problem in the country’s fisheries sector is not a question of availability but the issue of logistical system. If that [eased fish importation] happens, remember what it will do to our market and what it will do to our producers. Producers will have more problems and they may eventually stop investing,” Perez, who also serves as former Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) director