Commercial fishing ordinance reversed to protect Tañon Strait

Environmental groups and fisherfolk have lauded the Cebu provincial government for rejecting the ordinance of Toledo City that would have allowed commercial fishing within 10.1 to 15 km from the city’s coastline along Tañon Strait, the biggest marine protected area in the Philippines.

Toledo City, a third-class component city of Cebu, issued Sangguninang Panlungsod Resolution No. 2018-004 on July 2, 2018 allowing commercial fishing boats to fish inside its city waters. However, upon mandatory review of the provincial government, it was overturned, citing contradiction with national laws as basis.

Last July, in a position paper, Oceana Philippines, Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC) and Environmental Legal Assistance Center noted that the Toledo ordinance is not valid under the amended Fisheries Code. Only small fishers with boats weighing less than three gross tons and using non-destructive, passive fishing gear can catch fish in municipal waters.

“It was an illegal ordinance. And the Cebu board’s decision is a compelling action that effectively stops other coastal cities and municipalities from crafting similar ordinances allowing commercial fishing in Tañon Strait Protected Seascape and even in other municipal waters, until they comply with the rigid standards of the Fisheries Code,” said lawyer Rose Liza Eisma-Osorio, managing trustee of PEJC.

Under the amended Fisheries Code, commercial fishers can be allowed to fish from 10.1 to 15 kilometers of municipal waters provided there is prior consultation with the Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Council. It further specifies that the fishing area should be more than seven fathoms deep and only passive gear can be used.

“Commercial fishing inside a protected seascape is not allowed under our laws on marine protection, otherwise fishery and aquatic resource in Tañon Strait, which has an approved management plan, will be decimated,” lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos, vice president of Oceana Philippines, said.

This decision is a victory for the families of the more than 43,000 municipal fisherfolk of Tañon Strait who depend on this ecosystem for their subsistence, Ramos said.

Located between Cebu and Negros islands, Tañon Strait was proclaimed a protected seascape in 1998 through an executive order.

According to Ramos, the ordinance violates Republic Act 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018 and many other national and local policies.

“More importantly, it grossly violates the Philippine Constitution. Therefore the province has solid bases for rejection,” she said.