Bill seeks creation of dep’t of fisheries

SEN. FRANCIS “Kiko” Pangilinan, chair of the Senate agriculture committee, has filed a bill seeking to create a Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, removing the current Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources from the Department of Agriculture’s umbrella.

In a speech at the recently concluded Smart Agriculture forum, Pangilinan said 17.65 percent of the total agriculture output came from fisheries, one of the largest in the world, and around 1.4 million of the country’s total population depended on aquaculture for a living. Yet, the fisher folks remained the poorest in the agriculture sector, Pangilinan lamented.

“Twenty percent of our national territory is land and 80 percent is water. Yet the budget of the Department of Agriculture is the opposite—80 percent goes to land and not even 20 percent is dedicated to aquamarine resources. Obviously, this is not appropriate,” he pointed out.

The bill moves to create a government agency that will focus on the development of the country’s marine resources and at the same time aide poverty-stricken rural coastal areas. The poverty incidence in coastal areas is 14 percent.

“Elevating the current Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and beefing up its mandate and structure will ensure that the Department of Agriculture will be able to focus on production so that government’s resources will be fairly distributed and prioritized,” he added.

The BFAR has yet to issue an official statement on the proposed bill. “As of now, the BFAR is focused on carrying out its mandate in terms of the management and development of the fisheries and aquatic resources of the country,” BFAR chief information officer Nazario Briguera told the Inquirer.