Situated in a small cove behind rocky embankments lies Barangay 11 (Lawin), one of the coastal communities in Cavite City. As the sun begins to set, some fishers remain out in the sea. Among them are Erlinda Ferrer, 52, who dives to gather mussels for a living, and Danilo Lisama, 65, who casts nets in the shallow waters. Their boats produce silhouettes in the distance as they race to fill them before returning at 8 p.m. to rest.

A local is busy intricately crafting nets for use on his next fishing trip. (Lemuel Pabalan/Philippine Collegian)

But these waters that have always provided for them now call to be protected in return. Commercial fishing vessels loom over the horizon, threatening to encroach upon the space. 

In a Malabon court ruling, private fishing firm Mercidar Fishing Corporation was permitted to operate within the 15-kilometer municipal waters—a previously exclusive zone for small-scale fishing. The Supreme Court upheld this decision in August 2024 after the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) failed to appeal the ruling on time.

The decision sets a dangerous precedent for other big commercial ships to intrude on the fishing grounds depended on by more than two million fisherfolk nationwide, plunging the country into intensifying food insecurity and unabated environmental destruction.

 

A Stirring Tide

Due to government neglect and corporate greed, the Mercidar ruling revokes a vital provision that serves as one of the fisherfolk sector’s only means of legal protection. 

For decades, fisherfolk have relied on the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 to guard against resource degradation and widespread poverty through preferential privileges. The policy has benefited people like Ferrer, who has fished in Cavite City’s waters for 18 years as their community’s sole female fisher. Tending to mussel farms has funded the education of her three children and other day-to-day expenses. 

Erlinda Ferrer has fished in Cavite City for 18 years as a mussel farmer. (Lemuel Pabalan/Philippine Collegian)

Lisama, the president of Pagkakaisa ng Samahan ng Mangingisda sa Pilipinas (PANGISDA), started fishing at the age of 14. His whole family is involved in fishing, with his two sons helping on the boats while his wife and daughter sell their day’s haul to the neighbors.