Punisher Duterte urged to end crimes at sea

Marine conservation groups called on President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to end crimes happening at sea and coastal communities within six months just as he vowed to do with drug-related crimes.

“We call on the new administration to immediately address the crime of illegal fishing and start rehabilitating our overfished waters,” Oceana Philippines vice president Gloria Estenzo-Ramos said in a joint statement.

She was joined by groups including Greenpeace Philippines, NGOs for Fisheries Reform, World Wildlife Fund-Partnership Program Towards Sustainable Tuna, and Oceana Philippines.

“We look forward to seeing political will in the new government’s campaign against crime to include its focus on prosecuting plunderers of our oceans, to protect the people’s right to healthy marine ecosystems and ensure food security for all Filipinos,” Ramos said.

A report from Fisheries Improved for Sustainable Harvest Project, a program for improved fisheries management, showed protein deficiency among fishing communities was increasing at an alarming rate due to overfishing, illegal fishing and habitat destruction combined with increased demand for fish and population growth.

Illegal dynamite fishing has also contributed to the massive destruction of coral reefs in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, according to the WWF.

“We expect nothing less than strong, resolute implementation of the amended fisheries law against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,” said Vince Cinches, oceans campaigner of Greenpeace Philippines.”

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed fisherfolks remained the poorest among the basic sectors in the country, with poverty incidence in this sector pegged at 39.2 percent in 2012.

The National Anti-Poverty Commission, which was created in 1997 through Republic Act No. 8425, listed 12 other basic sectors, namely migrant workers, workers in the informal sector, indigenous peoples and cultural communities, women, differently-abled persons, senior citizens, victims of calamities and disasters, youth and students, children and urban poor.

The conservationist groups laid down their recommendations for the Duterte administration. Dubbed the “10-point Blue Agenda,” the groups asked for the delineation of municipal waters, a fisherfolk settlement program, implementation of traceability mechanisms for fishery products, capacity-building for fisherfolk to better adapt to climate change, and sustainable fishing.

“We strongly support the creation of a Department of Oceans and Fisheries for improved fisheries governance and strict enforcement of Republic Act 10654 (Amended Fisheries Code),” added Joann Binondo of the WWF.