Senators order BFAR to share vessel monitoring data as LGUs, Oceana push to protect 15-km municipal waters from commercial fishing. (Image courtesy of Oceana)
MANILA, Philippines — Senators are pressing the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to explain why vessel monitoring data meant to curb illegal fishing remains largely unshared with agencies and local governments tasked to enforce the law at sea.
During a Technical Working Group meeting of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform, chaired by Francis Pangilinan, senators directed BFAR to report on its compliance with the Amended Fisheries Code and its use of vessel monitoring measures (VMMs). Committee members Loren Legarda and Raffy Tulfo backed the call.
Oceana said the directive is long overdue.
“The BFAR already has the technology and resources to monitor over 90% of commercial fishing vessels in the country. Sharing this data with law enforcement at the local and national levels is key to protecting the 15-kilometer municipal waters from illegal and destructive fishing,” said Von Hernandez, Oceana vice president.
He added: “The ball is in BFAR’s court. It is only proper for the Senate to hold them accountable for their failure, thus far, to share this information.”
Call for formal data-sharing deal
At a February 18 hearing, Pangilinan urged BFAR to formalize data-sharing with local government units (LGUs) through a memorandum of agreement between the Department of Agriculture and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines.
The goal is to empower LGUs in monitoring the ingress and egress of commercial fishing vessels and determine which operations are legal — and which are not.
In its submission to the committee, Oceana flagged enforcement gaps due to the lack of shared vessel tracking data. Despite around 90 percent or 9 out of 10 of transnationally designated fishing vessels being equipped with monitoring devices, the data are not being regularly shared with the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine National Police–Maritime Group, or LGUs — including those managing marine protected areas.
“How can we protect what we cannot see?” Hernandez said.
VMMs are designed to improve transparency and traceability in fishing operations and to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUUF).
Legarda also pushed for civil society and fisherfolk groups to be accredited recipients of VMM data, saying information generated using public funds should not remain confined within government offices.
15-kilometer municipal waters
The data-sharing debate comes amid tensions over proposals that could open the 15-kilometer municipal waters — reserved by law for artisanal fishers — to commercial fishing vessels.
Oceana reiterated its opposition to such moves and expressed support for Legarda’s proposal to make the zone exclusively for municipal fishers.
Local officials from Romblon, Libertad in Antique, and Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro also attended the hearing and voiced strong opposition to commercial fishing within municipal waters.
Sablayan Mayor Walter Marquez, alongside Oceana, filed a motion to intervene in a pending Supreme Court case involving Mercidar. Hernandez said the unresolved case has sown confusion among LGUs over whether to allow commercial fishing within their jurisdiction.
Some LGUs, including Romblon, are asserting their authority over the 15-kilometer zone not only under the Fisheries Code but also the Local Government Code, which is rooted in the Constitution.
The hearing followed the release of Oceana’s Fisheries Audit report on the implementation of the Amended Fisheries Code, Republic Act 10654. Ocenana’s report found that despite progressive fisheries laws and constitutional social justice guarantees, Philippine fisheries are in rapid decline. And the country is losing more than 45 million kilos of fish annually while fisherfolk families remain in poverty.
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