Imee eyes probe into fish supply ‘shortage’

SENATOR Imee Marcos is poised to file within the week an enabling resolution to pave the way for a Senate inquiry into a possible “fake shortage as pretext to allow entry of fish imports,” warning that rampant importation “will kill our local fisheries.”

In seeking the Senate probe, Sen. Marcos intends to ask the Department of Agriculture (DA) to clarify reports reaching her office that the DA “conjured a fake shortage” to justify importing 60,000 metric tons (MT) of fish supply.

“Stop this rampant importation that will kill our local fisheries,” said Marcos, who chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, asserting that “there is ample supply of fish for the first quarter of the year and that importation would only deal a fatal blow to local fisheries.”

The Senator noted that “we have enough fish from stocks unsold in 2021 and yet to be delivered until March,” reminding officials that “the closed fishing season is also about to end.” In a statement on Thursday, she noted that the DA had claimed the damage wrought by Typhoon Odette on the fishery sector in December required the importation of galunggong (round scad), sardines and mackerel, while the annual fishing ban remains in effect between November and February.

However, the senator recalled January 12 data of the Fisheries Inspection and Quarantine Division of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) showing that “only 14,349 MT of fish have been sold in the market, out of the 60,000 MT allocated to 25 importers who have applied for 48,985 MT so far.”

Thus, she added, almost 35,000 metric tons of fish in storage and incoming shipments will be available, “apart from the 11,015 MT still open for import applications.”

The lawmaker lamented “the DA turned a deaf ear to a unanimous recommendation” of the National Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (NFARMC) that there was “no need for the issuance of a certificate of necessity to import for the first quarter of 2022,” as stated in the council’s Resolution No. 3, Series of 2022. The NFARMC is an advisory and recommendatory body that must be consulted by the DA under Section 61 of the Fisheries Code.

‘Buying smartphones from snatchers’

FILIPINOS should not be fed by their government imported fish products like the iconic galunggong, especially when they come from nations ransacking the Philippines’s territorial waters, another senator said, likening the a situation to someone buying electronic gadgets from snatchers.

Partido Reporma chairman and standard-bearer Panfilo “Ping” Lacson raised this observation Thursday as he denounced the reported DA plan to buy over 60,000 metric tons of fish, which threatens to kill the livelihood of our own fisherfolk.

“Our aquatic resources in the West Philippine Sea are being stolen, right, and we are also deprived [of our liberty to fish],” said Lacson in a radio interview, speaking mostly in Filipino. Lacson, who visited Pag-asa Island off the coast of Palawan late November last year, said he is taking the issue of solving the regional disputes in the West Philippine Sea high up on his list of priorities because of the plight of local fishermen relying on the bounty of the sea for their livelihood.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, Lacson previously reported that the Philippines stands to lose around 300,000 metric tons or about 300 million kilograms of fish on average every year if foreign intrusions continue in Philippine archipelagic waters.

In a separate message, Partido Reporma spokesperson Ashley ‘Ace’ Acedillo said what the DA is actually trying to do in its plan to import ‘galunggong’ is to make unsuspecting Filipinos buy stolen items that are getting legally resold back into the public market.