Plan to downgrade BFAR into staff bureau opposed

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is at odds with the Department of Agriculture (DA) over plans to downgrade the agency from a line bureau to a mere staff bureau, saying this would wipe out significant gains made by the fisheries sector, especially aquaculture.

BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento, in a memorandum to Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban dated June 16, 2006, said the agency is strongly opposed to the proposal and asked that any action on BFAR be deferred until 2008.

Sarmiento was responding to an earlier directive by Panganiban, ordering BFAR to submit a rationalization plan for the agency to comply with Executive Order 366 that seeks to streamline all government agencies as part of attempts to trim government expenditures.

Panganiban’s memo said BFAR will continue to exist as a bureau in the region, but the BFAR regional director will be under the direct supervision of the regional executive director and it will be served by the regional fisheries unit’s administrative and financial services.

Also, BFAR’s regulatory services will be transferred to the proposed Philippine Agri-Fisheries Inspection Agency.

Sarmiento argued that the proposal is inconsistent with the intent of EO 366 which specified that only non-performing agencies should be phased out or abolished.

He pointed out that from 1986 to 1998 when BFAR was then a staff bureau under the DA, the country’s fisheries production was flat with annual production averaging just 2.6 million metric tons (MT).

In contrast, BFAR was able to raise fishery output since 1999 when it was elevated into a line bureau with the passage of the Fisheries Code of 1998 or Republic Act 8850. Data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics show fisheries production broke the three million MT mark in 2001 and this was up further to four million MT in 2005.

"It is bad enough to try to fix what is not broken. But it is worse when one attempts to fix what is not broken with something that is historically infirm. Why the DA wants to revert to the old, discredited set up is something that must be explained to the would-be affected sectors and must be done before – not after it becomes a final DA position," said Sarmiento.

BFAR pointed out among all the DA sectors, only fisheries has the best potentials for growth and expansion given its considerable investment in research and development, its emphasis on aquaculture development, the focus on popularizing new species and headways gained in exploiting vast but untapped areas such as the Pacific exclusive economic zone.

BFAR’s work in aquaculture deserves special mention in light of consensus among fishery experts that aquaculture will be the most dominant source of food in the world in the next 10 years," said Sarmiento.

In a position paper given to the DA, the Tambuyog Development Center (TDC), a development agency focusing on marginal fisherfolk is asking the DA to reconsider its plan to relegate BFAR into a staff bureau.

"There are grave and persistent problems in the local fisheries industry, especially the municipal subsector that has remained undeveloped. In this context, downgrading BFAR to a mere staff bureau is not the answer. Rationalization is not a mere cost-cutting scheme. Rather, we believe that urgent reforms in the bureaucracy are called for to resolve the underdevelopment of the fisheries industry," TDC executive director Arsenio Tanchuling said.

Tanchuling said rationalizing BFAR’s functions should integrate a development framework addressing not only the big fishery business, but also pay attention to long-standing issues of the marginalized municipal fisheries sector such as the widespread poverty and the increasing open access nature of Philippine capture fisheries. The municipal fisheries sector comprises 99 percent of total fisher population, but this sector is poor and fragmented. They are not linked to other subsectors of the local fishery industry or to major domestic markets, much less foreign markets.

TDC said BFAR’s rationalization plan should take off from an analysis of the current situation, needs and problems of the sector.

BFAR also oversees the Fisheries Technology Center, National Freshwater Fisheries Technology Center, National Inland Fisheries Technology Center, National Marine Fisheries Development Center, National Integrated Fisheries Technology and Development Center, National Seaweeds Technology and Development Center, Fisheries Biological Center and Mindanao Freshwater Technology Center.