By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter

A MILITANT fisherfolk group known as PAMALAKAYA said on Tuesday that surveillance and other intelligence gathering are roles for the military and should not be assigned to fishermen in the South China Sea as it opens them to risks.

“While it is every Filipino’s patriotic duty to defend our sovereignty, we are opposed to involving our fishers into military duties, particularly intelligence gathering and surveillance,” PAMALAKAYA national chairperson Fernando L. Hicap said in a Twitter message. “This proposal will further make Filipino fishers vulnerable to China’s hostile behaviors in our waters.”

Stressing that it is the military and uniformed personnel who are more apt to safeguard Philippine waters, Mr. Hicap added: “Filipino fishers will ensure stable fish production as long as the mandated authorities are out there to protect our waters from any foreign aggressors.”

Last week, the House of Representatives approved the P5.768-trillion national budget for next year without any changes, but congressmen committed to realign the combined P650-million confidential and intelligence funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) to intelligence and security offices.

Among the agencies that will benefit from the intelligence funds are the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), National Security Council (NSC), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

“We stand by our call that the Philippine Coast Guard and Navy should be more proactive in defense of the West Philippine Sea, and to secure the fishing activities of Filipino fishers in our territorial waters,” Mr. Hicap said.

While PAMALAKAYA opposes giving security and intelligence roles to fishermen, it said that the government should help modernize fishing technology in the country.

“Chinese fishing vessels equipped with relatively sophisticated fishing technology can easily overwhelm the backward fishing capabilities of Filipino fishers, so to be able to exercise our fishing rights in our traditional fishing waters, the government should invest in strengthening the fishing capability of fisherfolk through modernization,” Mr. Hicap said.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that fisheries output in areas the country claims in the South China Sea dropped by 7% to 275,872 metric tons of fish in 2022.

THE PHILIPPINES continues to lag in reaching its target vaccination rate due to public fear stoked by misleading information on immunization, public health advocates said on Tuesday.

“We need to educate parents on the safety of vaccines… and avoid vaccine misinformation,” Vicente Y. Belizario, Jr., former dean of the University of the Philippines Manila College of Public Health, said in a media forum.

Mr. Belizario said that one of the most misleading pieces of information on immunization is that vaccines are used for “experimenting [on] children.” Debunking this, he said that vaccines undergo phases of assessments and are endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The WHO makes pronouncements based on evidence reviewed by experts who advise them,” he said.

“Delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccine services becomes the end result of such negative information,” he said, citing the WHO.

He added that vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines is mostly rooted in the Dengvaxia controversy. The government suspended the distribution of the anti-dengue vaccine in 2017 after French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur said that Dengvaxia can cause severe dengue if it is given to those without prior exposure to dengue.

The country has a 95% target for immunization coverage, citing House Bill No. 4483 or the proposed Mandatory Immunization Program Act.

The Philippines is ranked 5th globally for the most number of zero-vaccine children or children who have not received a single vaccine, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported in 2021.

“The Philippines as a whole is not doing nicely in terms of childhood mortality,” Mr. Belizario said, noting that an infant’s first 1,000 days are crucial in protecting the child from pneumonia. “There are more deaths that should be expected.”

With local government units (LGUs) at the forefront of distributing vaccines to the public, many struggle to have access to immunization.

“Access is challenging in many instances.” Mr. Belizario said. “In many settings in the PHL, health workers will need to cross rivers…[or are] coming down from the mountain or coming from remote areas.”

Fatima Ignacio-Jimenez, who heads the Immunization Committee of the Philippine Pediatric Society, said LGUs should prioritize its health programs as it “dominoes into the productivity of the country as a whole.”

“We have not actually penetrated the grassroots or the masses because the messages, even though they’re simple, they’re mixed,” she told the forum.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that only 48% of Filipino infants have been vaccinated, with pneumonia causing approximately 31,000 deaths among children under five years old in 2022.

Mr. Belizario noted that childhood vaccination is still the best way to combat childhood pneumonia, as well as improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene.

Ms. Gimenez emphasized that protecting an infant from diseases like pneumonia starts in the mother’s womb.

“Your child’s [health] depends on what protection you give to yourself,” she said, citing how breastfeeding helps the mother pass on anti-bodies to give her child temporary protection.

“There is no vaccine that is 100% effective but if you have anti-bodies, when the natural disease comes to you, then at least you have a form of defense,” Ms. Gimenez said. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz