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'So China knows it's ours': Robin urges BFAR to deploy more fishers in West PH Sea
'So China knows it's ours': Robin urges BFAR to deploy more fishers in West PH Sea
Jauhn Etienne Villaruel,
ABS-CBN News
Published Oct 19, 2022 07:30 PM PHT
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Updated Oct 19, 2022 08:10 PM PHT
Sen. Robinhood Padilla, during the continuation of the hybrid hearing of the Finance Subcommittee B Wednesday, October 19, 2022 on the proposed budget of the Department of Agriculture and its attached agencies and corporations, asks for an update on the program of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to deploy fishermen in the islands in the West Philippine Sea, saying this would be a clear sign to neighbors such as China that the area belongs to the Philippines. Bibo Nueva España/Senate PRIB
MANILA — The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) was urged anew on Wednesday to encourage more Filipino fishermen to swarm the West Philippine Sea in a bid to assert the country's claim in the disputed area.
Sen. Robin Padilla made the call during the budget presentation of the Department of Agriculture (DA) at the chamber. The BFAR is an attached agency of the DA.
"Kasi nung nandon ako, nakita natin 'yung pangangailangan talaga doon ng mga Pilipinong mangingisda para mapatunayan po natin sa ating kapitbahay na Tsino na atin 'yun," Padilla said.
(When I was there, I saw the need for Filipino fishermen to swarm there so our neighbor China knows it belongs to us.)
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According to BFAR assistant director Samuel Malvas, the agency has an ongoing program that deploys fishermen in the islands in the West Philippine Sea.
He added that monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) vessels are deployed to assist the fishermen.
"We are to deploy MCS para masamahan po 'yung mga mangingisda," Malvas told Padilla.
BFAR has also distributed big fishing boats to fishermen, he added.
Padilla asked BFAR for a more comprehensive report on the said program.
The West Philippine Sea produces 324,000 metric tons of fish for the country annually and generates about 7 percent of the country’s' fisheries output, in which a significant portion are shipped to Metro Manila.
The country has nearly 300,000 fishermen and more than 100 commercial fishing boats ply regularly in West Philippine Sea, BFAR said last year.
The West Philippine Sea forms part of the South China Sea, which Beijing is claiming in its near entirety despite a 2016 ruling by a United Nations-backed court that invalidated its "historical" basis.
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