Lacson, group question Agri dept’s decision
SEN. Panfilo Lacson raised the red flag Wednesday warning against the Department of Agriculture’s move to import 60,000 metric tons of small pelagic fishes based on claims local supply has “yet to normalize” from the devastation brought by Typhoon “Odette” (international code name Rai).
“With its decision to import some 60,000 metric tons [MT] of fishes such as galunggong and mackerel, the Department of Agriculture may well be ‘killing’ our fishermen,” Lacson warned.
Denouncing the move, Lacson questioned the need to import fish “when our waters are full of such natural resources.”
In a related development, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said that instead of importing more fish to address the reported shortage and high prices of fish in the market, the government should lift the ongoing fishing ban in the country.
The group issued the statement as it also rejected DA’S fish importation. According to Pamalakaya, flooding the market with imported fish will “drive down the farm-gate prices of fish, forcing small fishers to deep crisis and bankruptcy.”
“Flooding our local markets with imported fish will pose more harm than good to our struggling fishing industry. This liberalization scheme never addresses the country’s crisis in fisheries production. Rather, it is a burden to local fisherfolks whose fishery products are being outcompeted by imported fish,” Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chairman said in a news statement.
In a post on his Twitter account, Lacson chided DA officials behind the move: “Import pa more! After killing our farmers by importing vegetables and fruits, it is the turn of our fishermen to die,” he said on his Twitter account Wednesday.
In a news statement, Lacson clarified he was referring to the DA’S reported decision to import 60,000 metric tons of small pelagic fishes “supposedly because local supply has yet to normalize from the devastation brought by Typhoon Odette,” noting that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) reportedly projected a fish shortfall of 119,000 MT in the first quarter of 2022.
“Worse, the DA has a history of allowing potential corruption in importing agricultural products such as pork, poultry and fish and seafood products,” Lacson said, recalling that in April 2021, data obtained from his office indicated that “the Philippines lost more than P1 billion yearly in foregone revenues from 2015 to 2020, on imported fish and seafood alone.”
Moreover, the senator questioned the huge discrepancies between the records of the World Trade Organization and the Philippine Statistics Authority in terms of fish and seafood importation from the top 15 exporting countries from 2015 to 2020.
“If corruption infects the Department of Agriculture that should be at the forefront of food security efforts,” the senator said, stressing that “it goes beyond human conscience.”
It will be recalled that Lacson earlier took up the cudgels for Filipino farmers threatened by the importation of agricultural items, affirming that “we are capable of producing—such as strawberries and carrots.”
“The worry of farmers is not just the influx of smuggled agricultural products,” the senator said. “They are also concerned about agricultural pests that manage to slip past our authorities’ inspection,” he said, recalling a Senate hearing on agricultural smuggling last December.
At the same time, Lacson said “it is revolting that the Philippines has to import galunggong from China whose vessels have bullied our fishermen in the West Philippine Sea,” deploring that “because of the incursions of Chinese vessels, we are denied 300,000 metric tons of fish... If you divide 30 million kilos of fish by 40 kilos, that would translate to 7.5 million Filipino families who have to buy fish from sources other than the Philippines. That’s unacceptable,” he stressed.
The plan of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to import 60,000 metric tons, reflects both the department’s “lack of planning and the years of neglect” that characterized the plight of the fishermen, a House deputy speaker said on Wednesday.
In a news statement, Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta said using typhoon Odette as an excuse only exposes the department’s institutional weaknesses to rehabilitate the fishing industry as an important component of the agricultural sector, which in itself, had suffered negative growths in years.
“With about 20 typhoons ravaging the country each year—six to seven of them are powerful—the DA must have already in place a permanent support mechanism that helps the fishermen in repairing their fishing boats and equipment after every typhoon. This is not hard to do if we consider that DA’S average annual budget utilization is only in the vicinity of 60 percent,” he added.
“It can even replicate what Vietnam does more today to subsidize its fishermen: providing them with 12 horsepower of locally manufactured diesel engines,” he added.