Poor fishers should have preferential access to municipal waters

“When we attend to the needs of those in want … more than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.” This quote associated with Pope St. Gregory the Great is an apt reminder in the midst of moral questioning why we should give preference to the poor. Take for example the Supreme Court ruling allowing Mercidar Fishing Corp. to enter municipal or marine waters up to 15 kilometers from the coastline.

The fishing corporation filed a case in October 2023 before the Malabon Regional Trial Court (RTC) questioning the constitutionality of municipal fishers’ preferential access to municipal waters. The corporation appealed to the court to grant it access to municipal waters, which under the Fisheries Code is for the exclusive use of municipal fishers.

In December 2023, the Malabon RTC decided in favor of the corporation. The Supreme Court First Division upheld the RTC’s decision in August 2024. An editorial (see “Treading on dangerous waters,” 1/10/25) in this newspaper describes some of the legal technicalities in the court’s decision. This piece delves into the second petition to intervene, this time filed by fishers, before the Supreme Court.

The petitioners are Justino Dacillo, fisher from Quezon Province and chair of Lamon Bay Integrated Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council; Roberto Ballon, a fisher from Zamboanga and a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2021; Jessie delos Santos, an authorized fish examiner of BFAR and a member of Bantay Dagat from Batangas; and Erlinda Ferrer, a mother and fisher from Cavite City. Their petition echoed the call of previous petitioners—Oceana Philippines and the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, among others—to reverse the decision of the lower court.

The NGOs for Fisheries Reform, a network of civil society groups working in the fisheries sector, and Katipunan ng mga Artisanong Mangingisda sa Pilipinas, an alliance of artisanal fishers in the country, emphasized the great inequality between commercial and municipal fishers. They argue that commercial fishers, using a purse seine, can catch more than 3,000 kilos per hour, while municipal fishers, who usually use hook and line, can catch a measly half a kilo per hour. A commercial fishing vessel’s harvest for a day is the total catch of 1,500 municipal fishers, they added.

Such unequivocal disparity points to why a preferential option for the poor is a necessary requirement for social justice. They are victims of deprivation from opportunities and resources that would have allowed them to thrive and have a dignified life.

This is why our Constitution states that we should “protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity … by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the common good” (Section 1, Article XIII). In other words, public policies that give preference to the poor attempt to level the playing field. Municipal and artisanal fishers’ preferential access to municipal waters is a way of acknowledging and rectifying the injustice done to them.