Galunggong crisis

Cong Corrales .

THIS is definitely one for the books. An archipelagic country importing galunggong (round scad) from other countries that are landlocked. That’s not even the clincher. The clincher is these fishes would most probably be harvested from the disputed West Philippine Sea.

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol issued a certificate, allowing the importation of (up to) 17,000 metric tons of galunggong with a five percent tariff on its price tag.

He allowed the importation as a buffer in preparation for the closing of the fishing season here which starts on November and will end March, next year.

The importation would start next month and would end up to the last day of December or until the Department of Agriculture revokes it, the certification reads in part.

Although it did not specify from what country the fishes would be imported from, the imported galunggong would most likely come from China and Vietnam. At least that’s where we last imported fishes from in 2016, according to the records of the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Why would we source the fishes from China or Vietnam when their coastlines are far shorter than ours. The Philippines has the fifth-longest coastlines in the world at 36,289 kilometers. The People’s Republic of China and Vietnam have 14,500 kilometers and 3,260 kilometers of coastlines, respectively.

If we base the fish resource per square kilometers, there is a great chance that we’d be importing galunggong from within our exclusive economic zone.

Look, I understand that there is a need to close the fishing season. Having worked with the Fisheries Resource Management Project in the early 2000s, I know the municipal waters in the country are facing the depletion of stocks. But back then, the project aimed to reverse the trend of resource depletion in municipal waters and improve the income of coastal communities by promoting alternative livelihoods.

This is because a large number of Filipinos depend on coastal fisheries for their livelihood. According to the World Atlas online, about 40 to 60 percent of the total fish catch of the country is contributed by the coastal fishing communities.

We found out, however, that the marginalized fisherfolk in the country hardly has any dent in the fish stocks of the municipal waters. It is the commercial fishing boats plying in these municipal waters that harvest fishes with impunity. This, despite the ban of commercial fishing boats in municipal waters under the Fisheries Code of the Philippines of 1998 (RA 8550).

So just maybe, we shouldn’t be rash in punishing our fisherfolk by closing the fishing season on our waters but by implementing RA 8550 to the letter.

Whatever happened to the frigates and destroyers this administration has been boasting about on social media? Let those ships patrol our waters and apprehend commercial fishing boats encroaching into the municipal waters.

Well, that is unless all those boats are like most of the President’s speeches that are full of hyperbole. Pfft.