Before it is too late, the government should immediately act on the reported overfishing and harassment of local fishermen by Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), a peasant and fisheries group said Tuesday, April 19.
In a statement, the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) called on the government to implement all the necessary measures to ensure the protection of Filipino fishermen in WPS.
The PRRM recently held the “Philippines as a Marine and Archipelagic Nation” (Mana Mo) conference where it highlighted the problems of the Filipino fisherfolk, including China’s presence in the West Philippine Sea, and the potential solutions to the issues that come with it.
During the conference, the PRRM urged the government to uphold the archipelagic principle in protecting the welfare of the Filipino fishermen and the Philippines’ sovereignty in its territorial waters.
The archipelagic principle states that “all the waters contained within the baselines drawn around the outer islands of a state, which is entirely formed by one or more archipelagoes, are the internal waters of that state and subject to its sovereignty.”
Among the recommendations of the PRRM include the establishment of a Department of Fisheries (DOF) that would “effectively address the issues and concerns of the fisherfolk including the overfishing of China in the West Philippine Sea and the harassment of Filipino fishers,” said PRRM President Edicio Dela Torre.
Chinese vessels that have frequently been sighted in the WPS are capable of catching at least one ton of fish every day, according to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS).
The alleged overfishing and harassment of China were among the primary reasons cited by fisheries groups and marine environment advocates why local fishermen stopped going to Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough or Panatag Shoal) in Zambales which used to be their traditional fishing ground.
Aside from this, the PRRM also wanted to draw attention to the subject of fishing as “a focus or priority in municipalities.”
“It was noticed that in the many coastal communities or cities in the Philippines, there is hardly a municipality that has a fishery technician or a municipal agricultural officer that had fisheries as a course,” said PRRM project manager Leonora Lava.
“Even just the delineation of municipal waters is not done. It has taken decades and it still not given attention to. There is no municipal fishery development plan for a comprehensive plan on the subject of fisheries,” she added.