Fisher group rejects amendment of Fisheries Code

MANILA, Philippines — Fishers are rejecting the call of President Marcos to amend the Fisheries Code, saying this will only favor commercial fishers.

In his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), Marcos asked Congress to amend the Fisheries Code to ensure sustainable fishing.

Under the Fisheries Code of 1998, commercial fishing vessels weighing 3.1 gross tons (GT) and above are only allowed outside the 15-kilometer municipal waters.

In a statement, Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said amending the Fisheries Code will only benefit big-fishing firms.

The group claimed this purported harmonization will allow big fishing firms to operate within municipal waters.

“We outrightly reject this amendment of the Fisheries Code. This will certainly benefit owners of commercial fishing vessels who will be institutionally allowed to conduct their large-scale fishing activities inside the 15-kilometer municipal waters intended for small-scale and subsistence fisherfolk,” Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap said.

By allowing commercial fishers to operate in municipal waters, the group fears small fishers will lose out in harvests.

In light of this concern, Pamalakaya is urging President Marcos to “hold a dialogue with small-scale fishers and hear our basis of objection against the proposed Fisheries Code amendments.”

Press freedom

There was no need for President Marcos to address the press freedom situation in the country in his second SONA as authorities have been able to solve the cases of three journalists who were attacked in his first year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

“I think that this is the time that the government has been successful in running after the people responsible for these crimes. No such thing as impunity now; everybody accounts for what they do,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla told reporters.

“And I think that is… it’s not mentioned anymore because we were successful there and don’t want this to happen. When we don’t want it to happen, we don’t let it go. We fix it properly. The problem is faced head-on,” he added.

Since Marcos’ ascent to the presidency, three journalists have been killed: radiomen Rey Blanco of Negros Oriental, Percy Lapid and Cresenciano Bunduquin of Oriental Mindoro.

Remulla highlighted how authorities have arrested and filed charges against some of the suspects, saying this testifies to the government’s efforts to run after perpetrators of media killings.

For 14 straight years since its inception, the Philippines has appeared on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ list of countries where practicing journalism is unsafe.

Since 1986, nearly 200 journalists have been killed in the Philippines, based on a tally by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.

Lacking substance

Militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) scored President
Marcos’ second SONA for lack of substance on important issues such as human rights abuses.

“For the second year in a row, he failed to address this concern especially with the state of impunity prevailing in the country,” Bayan president Renato Reyes yesterday said in a statement.

What is glaring, according to Reyes, is Marcos’ silence on the killings in the government’s war on drugs as well as murders and abduction of activists.

Reyes also scored Marcos for not tackling substantial wage increase
for workers and employees, and keeping silent on the issue of jeepney modernization and corporatization.

Reyes said Marcos’ Bagong Pilipinas, like the Bagong Lipunan slogan of
his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., harps on grand promises but is short on actual benefits for the people. — Neil Jayson Servallos