"There has been a decrease in the number of our fishermen venturing in this part of Indonesia. And there have been not that many arrests," Philippine Consul General Olivia Palala told The STAR.
Palala, one of the delegates to the 25th Chairmen’s Conference of the Philippine-Indonesia Border Patrol Committee here, said the joint border patrol committee has addressed the issue, thus lessening the number of Filipino fishermen arrested in Indonesian waters.
Illegal Filipino fishermen, mostly from Southern Mindanao, are usually detained in the port city of Bitung where their vessels are also impounded.
The waters of East Indonesia are said to be among the richest sources of high-grade tuna in the world.
Aside from Filipino fishermen, Taiwanese nationals also frequently fish in Indonesian waters.
Palala said Indonesia and the Philippines have agreed that once a Philippine fishing boat is caught illegally fishing in Indonesian waters, only the ship captain shall be detained while his crew shall be immediately deported to the country.
"In that way, we have already lessened our detainees in their prison cells here," Palala said.
This arrangement of detaining only the ship’s captain, according to Palala, has also lessened the expenditures for the food and upkeep of the crewmembers of apprehended vessels.
Palala said there are also efforts to determine the real identities of those arrested because in some cases, they turn out to be Indonesians.
"We have been very careful because we found out that some of those who have been arrested were actually not Filipinos but were Indonesians who only wanted to go to the Philippines and they could only do it by getting themselves arrested and eventually ‘deported,’" she said.
The bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and the Philippines has also helped ensure that fishermen from both countries use only the allowed mesh size in order to preserve the remaining marine resources in the area.