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A House panel has amplified calls for the Department of Agriculture (DA) to boost development of modern post-harvest facilities in the country’s eastern seaboard as a way to improve fish production and help offset the dwindling catch in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). 

Chaired by Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan, the House Committee on Aquaculture and Fisheries Resources joined House Minority Leader 4PS Party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan in calling on the DA, through the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA), to construct more fish ports and cold storage facilities in  Samar, Leyte and other Visayas provinces in the country’s eastern seaboard. 

In last week’s hearing of the committee, Yamsuan also urged the PFDA to advance the timeline of its fishport construction  in the municipality of Oras, Eastern Samar to either 2025 or 2026, instead of its original schedule of 2028. 

Both Yamsuan and Libanan pointed out that the 2028 schedule for constructing the Oras fishport highlighted the apparent low priority that the PFDA has given to the development of the fishing industry in the eastern seaboard. 

“This is ironic considering that the eastern seaboard is alongside  one of the most productive portions of our waters in terms of fisheries resources. The provinces along the eastern seaboard have more than a 100 coastal municipalities dependent on fishing as their main source of livelihood, and a coastline stretching more than 2,000 kilometers,” Yamsuan said. 

“Yet, we have learned during our recent hearing that the PFDA seems to have neglected this marine resources-rich area and have focused its attention and infrastructure buildup on the western seaboard where we have seen increasingly aggressive actions from China,” he added.

Yamsuan said he would talk to DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. about the possibility of moving up the scheduled construction of the Oras fishport as well as the other infrastructure development programs in the eastern seaboard. 

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has reported that for the first half of 2024, fish catch in the WPS went down by 6.78 percent to 101,039.54 metric tons (MT) from 108,392.48 MT for the same period in 2023. 

Libanan said during the hearing that the PFDA can counter  the declining fish catch in the WPS resulting from China’s incursions in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by giving equal priority to the establishment of fish ports, cold storage plants  and blast freezers in the eastern seaboard. 

“According to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the country’s fish spoilage is at 25 to 40 percent. This is because of the fact that we lack modern facilities like fish ports with cold storages to reduce post-harvest losses. These are what we need in Eastern Samar and other provinces along the eastern seaboard, so that they can contribute more to our fisheries output,” he said. 

Libanan, a former congressman and vice governor of  Eastern Samar, said that owing to the lack of the appropriate facilities, export-grade tuna from Eastern Samar is sent all the way to General Santos City to be stored and processed. 

He said the PFDA should act fast in developing the necessary infrastructure in provinces along the eastern seaboard to harness the full potential of the area’s fishing industry and boost its contributions to the country’s efforts to attain food security. 

The country’s eastern seaboard, surrounded by the West Pacific Ocean, is known for tuna fishing. Some areas of Northern and Eastern Samar are within the Tuna Conservation and Management Zone, which is rich in pelagic fishes, such as tuna species, according to BFAR. 

The construction of the Oras fishport and its  cold storage facilities is provided under House Bill (HB) No.10848 authored by Libanan. 

This measure, along with Libanan’s other bill, HB No.10850, which aims to build  a fishport with ice plant and cold storage facility in Dolores, Eastern Samar, were approved by the House aquaculture and fisheries committee.