Fish holiday launched to protest new fishery law

MANILA, Philippines - A nationwide fish holiday will be held starting today to protest amendments to the Fishery Law.

An alliance of the commercial fishing industry is holding the protest in sympathy with medium- and small-fishing groups.

Protesters believe that the amendments, if not corrected, would directly result in large scale unemployment and  the collapse of the fishing industry.

The decision to declare a nationwide fish holiday was based on a collective agreement reached during a series of meetings by federation members on the adverse effect of Republic Act 10654 on big time players and medium- and small fishing groups, according to Paul Santos, Alliance of  Philippine Fishing Federation Inc. (APFFI) vice president.

“This new law was in itself a bad law,” he said.

“It was bad because it did not address the root cause and concerns of the small-, medium- and large-scale commercial fishermen in so far as the allowed areas of operations, pushing them arbitrarily out further into areas and fishing grounds where there was hardly any pelagic fish. It did not resolve the main issues of why fishermen were committing alleged illegal fishing.”

Pelagic fish like the galunggong and tamban do not thrive in the deep but in shallow waters.

Last week, Navotas-based fisherfolk and those from nearby areas launched a one-day fish holiday to protest  the new Fishery Law.

Federation members nationwide, including those from Zamboanga, Cebu, Iloilo, Palawan, Bicol, Southern Tagalog  and Metro Manila, will stop unloading their catch starting today. This is expected to have a wide ranging effect in the country’s various fish outlets, initially in Metro Manila wet markets.

Unless the new Fishery Law is repealed or amended, the holiday “will become a permanent reality” as it will “cause the collapse of the  fishing industry” and leave people without jobs, Santos said.

“The government has to annul this RA 10654 and revert back to the old RA 8550 while crafting a better law,” he said.

The fish holiday was supposed to have started the protest at the Navotas Fish Port on Tuesday night,  Santos said.

“There would be no unloading of catches,” he said.

The new law will have a tremendous effect on small-, medium- and large-scale commercial fishermen throughout the country, Santos said.

“This is because the impact to them is really big and immediate, and the penalties and restrictions of the new law will affect them tremendously,” he said.

RA 10654 amended RA 8550 and regulated commercial fishing by pushing fishermen into the open sea. It also dealt with concerns like illegal fishing with the use of dynamite and cyanide.

The new law only allows fishermen to go beyond 15 kilometers from shore, “with the areas closer to shore intended for municipal sustenance fishermen,” Santos said

“In Philippine setting, many of our coast lines do not have productive areas outside of 7 kms, all the more at 15 kms,” he said.

“The depth of the seabed is just too deep and there is hardly any marine life that can sustain or attract pelagic fish. There is little or no marine life. It is similar to trying to finding a coconut tree in the middle of the desert.”

Under the old law, fishermen were allowed to fish up to seven kilometers from shore, Santos said.

RA 8550 did not stop rampant dynamite and cyanide fishing, which has continued up to this day, “without effective enforcement measures by government, and has contributed significantly to the destruction and dwindling of fishery resources of the country,” APFFI said.