SOLICITOR General (SolGen) Menardo I. Guevarra has insisted that fishing vessels should be equipped with satellite transponders that would track and report their catch to curb violations, but fishing companies opposed the idea during oral arguments before the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday.
Mr. Guevarra said fishing companies should use a vessel monitoring system (VMS) and an electronic reporting system (ERS) to curb illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing (IUFF).
He told Justice Ricardo R. Rosario that the current manual reporting is prone to inaccuracy and human error.
However, fishing companies Royal Fishing Corp., Bonanza Fishing and Market Resources Inc., and RBL Fishing Corporation, as represented by their lawyer Arnold D. Naval, argued that the requirement as issued in the suspended Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) No. 266 violates their right to privacy and unlawful searches.
Mr. Naval said that data coming from the system, including the location of fishing activities, should be treated as confidential to protect trade secrets.
“Information as to the location of the fishing vessels and details as to their operation on those fishing spots are considered trade secrets by the fishing companies,” said Mr. Naval. “All these mechanisms and tools they used are known only to them, to the owners, and only confided to specific personnel within their company.”
Mr. Naval said that FAO 266 is against the provisions of the Philippine Fisheries Code which states that the government should protect the trade and industrial policy information of fisherfolks and fisheries operators especially when the disclosure of such information will injure the competitiveness and viability of their fishing operations.
The FAO 266 was suspended on Apr. 6. The Supreme Court’s decision over its constitutionality is pending. — Jomel R. Paguian
