THE SENATE committee on agriculture has asked members of the House of Representatives to monitor the construction of marine hatcheries in their constituencies, amid a backlog in such projects and as bills for more hatcheries pile up in the legislature.
Senator Cynthia A. Villar, who chairs the Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform committee, said at a hearing that the backlog amounts to 37 projects dating back to 2016, all of them authorized by laws passed by Congress.
She said the Senate, sitting in plenary, is evaluating three more projects, while 11 are currently in committee.
“Our work would be a waste if we keep passing these bills and none of them is implemented,” Ms. Villar said at the hearing.
If the backlog is addressed and the pending bills are implemented, she said nearly all provinces will have hatcheries, which would be “a big deal for fishing.”
Ms. Villar told members of the House to check on the status of pending projects in their districts with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). She cited agency estimates on the cost of a hatchery of about P20 million and the need for each local government unit to donate a site for the project.
“These bills will help resolve overfishing and dwindling fish catch of small fisherfolk, since they will be given priority access to their own town’s marine resources and new technologies including the processing and preservation of the fish catch,” she said.
BFAR National Director Eduardo B. Gongona said that of the backlog of 37, five have been completed or are in the process of being built, while 25 will be finished before the end of May. The remaining seven are due for completion by year’s end.
“It’s not enough to pass the bill into law,” said Ms. Villar, “it’s very important that it should be implemented.”
During the hearing, Ms. Villar also disputed the agriculture department’s contention of the need to import. The Department of Agriculture (DA) has issued import certificates for small frozen pelagic fish amounting to 60,000 metric tons for the first quarter.
Ms. Villar said the DA should have suspended the closed fishing season or provided funds to rebuild fishing boats destroyed by the typhoon instead.
She questioned the department’s preference for imports over the catch of fisherfolk, saying: “Why are imports the first solution?”
“Our problem is the small farmers and fisherfolk because they do not have resources, and they are not that well-educated to know what they have to do in case there are problems,” she added. “They should be the ones BFAR is helping.”
The population is now estimated at 111 million, Samar Rep. Edgar Mary S. Sarmiento noted during the same hearing. “This means that we cannot feed our population with natural resources because food security will fade… so in their mind, (the solution) is to import again and again which is wrong.” — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan
