A prominent fisheries school in Leyte province has joined the growing call among concerned sectors urging the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent decision allowing commercial fishing in municipal waters.
In a statement, the Faculty of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences of the Visayas State University (VSU), located in Tolosa, Leyte, said the high court's ruling “poses a serious threat to the coastal ecosystems and the communities that depend on the resources therein.”
The school calls for the status quo of the implementing rules and regulations of the Republic Act (RA) 8550, (Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998), as amended by RA 10654, otherwise known as an Act to prevent, deter, and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, on prohibiting the entry of the commercial fishing vessels in the municipal waters.
“By allowing the commercial fishing activities in municipal waters, it would add immense pressure that would intensify overfishing and devastate the marine ecosystems that are already under strain,” the school said.
The VSU satellite campus said most of the commercial fishers in the country use active gears, including trawl, Danish seine, purse seine, and ring net, which are not only highly efficient but are also associated with negative biological and environmental impacts.
“On top of these, the entry of the commercial vessels would imperil the livelihood of the small-scale fishers who highly depend on the municipal waters for their daily sustenance and potentially, all other stakeholders in the chain will also be affected,” the VSU campus added.
Allowing the entry of commercial fishing vessels into municipal waters would jeopardize both the coastal environment and the people dependent on it, especially artisanal or small-scale fishers, it said.
Last month, the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its attached agency, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), sought the reversal of a High Court decision that allowed commercial fishing in municipal waters.
The BFAR’s motion stemmed from the SC’s First Division ruling affirming a Malabon Regional Trial Court decision in favor of the petition of Mercidar Fishing Corp. to operate in municipal waters.
Prior to the ruling, the so-called "municipal waters" reaching up to 15 kilometers from the shoreline were restricted to small-scale fishermen.
(With report from PNA)
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