Group slams SC ruling allowing big-time fishers in municipal waters
LUCENA CITY – A multi-sectorial organization in Quezon province on Saturday assailed the Supreme Court ruling that allowed commercial fishing vessels within the 15-kilometer municipal waters, which have long been reserved for small fishermen.
“The issue here is social justice. The ruling placed the poor and marginalized municipal fishers in a pitiful oppressive situation,” said Jay Lim, spokesperson of Kapatiran at Alyansang Alay para sa Kaunlaran ng Bayan–Quezon (Kaakbay-Quezon), the biggest coalition of nongovernment groups composed of farmers, fishers, workers, religious, students and environmentalists in the province.
On Dec. 19, the Supreme Court (SC) First Division struck down restrictions on commercial fishing within the 15-kilometer municipal water zone, affirming a Malabon Regional Trial Court’s ruling that preferential access for small-scale fishers is unconstitutional.
The decision followed a petition by a commercial fishing operator challenging provisions of the Philippines’ Fisheries Code, which grants small fisherfolk priority fishing rights in this zone.
Lim emphasized that the small fishers in Quezon were already disadvantaged even before the SC decision.
“How much more now with this situation? Their livelihood has long been disrupted by trawlers and commercial fishers who would often intimidate and even physically harm them,” Lim said in alarm.
He called on local government officials in the province’s coastal towns to protest the SC ruling for the protection of the poor fishers in their respective communities.
Daily reports
Thirty four of Quezon’s 42 towns are coastal—17 along Lamon Bay in the Pacific Ocean, 12 off the Tayabas Bay facing the China Sea and five along the Ragay Gulf.
The Quezon police noted in their daily reports the rampant illegal fishing and the continuous operations of commercial fishers inside municipal water whose boats used the destructive “pangulong” (purse seines), “taksay” (ring nets) and “buli-buli” (modified Danish seine).
The government banned “buli-buli” fishing in 2013 as it destroys corals, seagrass, and traps and eventually kills small fish.
Citing reports from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and Kaakbay’s fishermen members, Lim said illegal fishing activities in Lamon Bay and Tayabas Bay by big-time fishers were organized and well-funded.
In Lamon Bay, armed crew hired by big-time illegal fishermen have heightened tensions in this once-rich fishing ground, Lim reported.
“In some instances, the armed crews of commercial fishing vessels harass and threaten small fisherfolk,” he lamented.
Fragile
Lim also expressed alarm that with the new ruling, the already fragile biodiversity of Quezon seas faces more threats.
He noted that large stationary fish traps, or “baklad,” in Tayabas Bay endanger marine turtles, many of which have been found dead from suffocation after entanglement.
Coral reef poaching and illegal fishing, often by fishermen seeking to offset losses to commercial fishers, further threaten marine life.
In an earlier interview, a local fisherman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, blamed the presence of large commercial fishing operations for the dwindling catch in the bay area.
“Sad to admit, there are some of us who were forced to engage in illegal fishing. I can’t blame them,” the fisherman told the Inquirer.
