An opposition leader in the House of Representatives on Friday called for a massive cleanup of water bodies as well as to stop the “continuing misuse and abuse,” saying “we will never be able to solve the country’s declining fish production unless we do this.”
Senior deputy minority leader and Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza on Friday urged Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to act on the matter.
“This representation has long been demanding for immediate action on the continuing abuse and degradation of our waterbodies which has been depriving our fishermen of their basic source of livelihood and a continuing affordable supply of fish in our public markets,” Atienza, one of the opposition lawmakers who called for the resignation of Piñol over the rice crisis, said.
“The Laguna de Bay, Manila Bay, the Pampanga and Bulacan rivers are examples of why we have developed a fish crisis. These waterbodies have been arrogated by fishpen and fishpond operators. These have been mainly caused by two things: One, the lack of a determined effort on the part of government to enforce the law to protect our waterbodies, and second, corruption on the part of those expected to protect our waterbodies but have been allowing the malpractices and abuse to continue,” Atienza said.
Government agencies, he said, have not been giving an accurate picture of the problem. Laguna de Bay, the biggest freshwater lake in Asia with an area of 99,000 hectares, used to be the major source of fish for the provinces surrounding it as well as Metro Manila.
“Fishermen in the area have been benefited by this. But as it is, practically the whole lake now is monopolized by rich and powerful fishpen owners, depriving our fisherfolk of their source of livelihood and residents of Metro Manila with a steady supply of fish. The degraded quality of water of the lake is also contributing to the steady decline of production,” Atienza said.
Atienza said the Laguna Lake Development Authority, created by law to protect the lake, is a failure.
“All we have been getting are alibis for failure, false data and false claims of allegedly clearing the lake of fishpens and fishcages,” he said. “There are more fishpens today than in yesteryears. The fishermen have lost their source of livelihood and are now our poorest sector. This situation is clearly untenable,” he added.
He said that the continued misuse and abuse of waterbodies has caused their pollution and degradation, thus drastically affecting the quality of the fish catch. The government, instead of addressing the root cause of the problem, has resorted to importing fish, he added.
“It is very ironic that an archipelago like the Philippines with abundant waters in and around it with numerous species of fish, is now importing fish, while once upon a time, the world was salivating for our high-quality tuna, even tawilis and maliputo,” Atienza said. “These were species that our waters were abundant with before, but have now become rarities.”
He added: “We need to liberate all our waterbodies from monopolies of private enterprises. The DA and BFAR, the agencies on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of ensuring the protection of this natural resource, have been failing.”