OPPOSE COMMERCIAL FISHING IN MUNICIPAL WATERS

To have a healthy, resilient, safe and sustainable marine environment, and protect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of our artisanal fisherfolks and coastal communities to access their fishing grounds, we need your voices in opposing ongoing moves to amend Republic Act (RA) 10654, otherwise known as the Amended Fisheries Code of the Philippines. Ironically, these efforts were primarily initiated by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the principal agency mandated to ensure the sustainable management of our fisheries and marine habitats, together with some members of the commercial fishing sector and mentioned by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in his State of the Nation Address in July 2023.

The peoples’ call is the full implementation of all the provisions of RA 10654 as reforms in the law need strengthening. Instead of amendments, a comprehensive, inclusive and transparent evaluation of its implementation and impacts on fisheries and key stakeholders is long overdue.

Thank you for letting your voices reach President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., our Executive Department agencies, and our legislators in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

petition text

Dear {contact_data~title} {contact_data~firstName} {contact_data~lastName},

We urgently appeal for your support to stop the move from the industry to allow commercial fishing in the already overexploited municipal waters and legitimize the illegal fishing that has contributed to the dire state of our fisheries. Allowing this through amendment of our fisheries laws compromises the gains we achieved, so far, to prevent, deter and eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUUF) and to sustainably manage our fisheries to address the overexploited and overfished state of over 2/3  of our fishing grounds and 90% of monitored fish stocks.

Studies conducted by the members of the National Scientific Advisory Group submitted to BFAR in 2019, and the ongoing work of the National Stock Assessment Program of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) indicate that the unabated commercial fishing inside the 15-kilometer municipal waters contributes significantly to the destruction of marine habitats and overexploitation of our fisheries resources. Allowing commercial fishing vessels to fully operate within municipal waters has serious implications on food and nutritional security and not only violates the constitutionally guaranteed preferential rights of artisanal fisherfolk to our marine resources and the duty of the State to protect our marine wealth, but also contradicts the basic tenet of social justice that “those who have less in life should have more in laws.”

The Fisheries Code as amended by RA 10654 already embodies the key ingredients to ensure science-based and participatory fisheries management through the Fisheries Management Areas (FMA) system established in 2019. The 12 FMAs are in different stages of implementation across different regions in the country. Furthermore, the amended Fisheries Code includes a key provision aimed at ensuring that IUUF is deterred and prevented through the vessel monitoring measures requirement for all Philippine flagged fishing vessels. IUUF, along with overfishing and destruction of marine habitats, have caused adverse impacts on fisherfolk and coastal communities and aggravated our fisheries and biodiversity crisis.

If fully implemented, the amended Fisheries Code will help rebuild our fisheries as it has the potential of effectively addressing the challenges and needs of our fisheries sector through science-based decision-making process and ensure our fish exporters’ compliance with the regulations of countries importing our fisheries and seafood products.

What is urgent and compelling is to implement fully the provisions of the amended Fisheries Code and to conduct a thorough assessment to ensure that its provisions are not watered down or weakened by proposing amendments that lack scientific foundation. It is important to gauge the impact of implemented provisions of the law on fisheries and the lives of our fisherfolk.

We are bringing this to your attention so that you, as our valued legislator, would listen to your constituents and the artisanal fisherfolk and coastal communities and ensure that our marine resources would be protected from further abuse and overexploitation.

Kind regards, 
{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}

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