Fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) condemned the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement to remove fishing subsidies, stating that instead of addressing the worsening state of the fishing sector, the agreement will bring greater harm to small fisherfolk as they are dependent on subsidies for the fuel they use for fishing.
The measure sought to urge WTO’s 162-member states to eliminate fishing subsidies to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and to supposedly encourage ocean sustainability. The agreement was adopted last June 17 at the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland.
“If there’s anything the WTO has succeeded in 20 years after, it is pushing the small-scale and artisanal fishers further to the margins. It has left 850 million poor and hungry. While imperialist countries and big fishing monopolies are left unscathed,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA national chairperson stated on October 19.
Currently, the national government allocates P500 million to subsidize 80,000 fisherfolk, according to the Department of Agriculture in March.
A 2019 study from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated that governments spend USD35 billion every year to support the fishing sector, from which USD22 billion go to subsidies that the OECD deemed as “harmful.” However, PAMALAKAYA said that cutting subsidies altogether would severely damage the livelihood of small-scale fisherfolk as they are dependent on subsidies for their fuel.
At least 70 percent of the Philippines’s fish stocks are considered overfished, data from the United States Agency for International Development showed. However, the Asia Pacific Research Network clarified that it is not the small and artisanal fishers responsible for overfishing but transnational corporations, with their advanced technologies, who are exploiting marine resources.
Hicap stated that the WTO agreement would fail to catch the culprits behind the exhaustion of the world's oceans and seas, adding that fishing subsidies should instead be “rechanneled” to fisherfolk that were negatively affected by the economy to protect them from the impacts of rising costs.
“The fishing subsidies should be properly disbursed to small fishers who never engaged in any destructive fishing practices, and in order to boost their productivity for food security,” Hicap said.
The pact will take effect once two-thirds of the WTO’s member-states ratify the agreement. The Philippines was a founding member of the WTO when it joined the group in 1995 amid opposition from progressive groups.
PAMALAKAYA and other agri-fishery advocate groups have urged the government to prioritize food production subsidies and fast-track legislative measures that would give direct cash aid for fisherfolk and farmers. These subsidies would mitigate the impact of rising costs affecting productivity in the fishing sector.
The opposition Makabayan bloc filed House Bill 2024 on July 19, a measure that seeks to provide P15,000 cash aid for some 1.1 million fisherfolk affected by the high cost of fuel and the slump of farmgate prices due to massive fish importation. The bill has been pending with the Committee on Aquaculture and Fisheries Resources since August 2.
“We need to provide urgent relief to the 1.1 million Filipinos employed in the fisheries and aquaculture sector who are now battered by steep oil prices and the Department of Agriculture’s thrust of massive importation of fish,” Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas said, in support of the measure. “Napapaligiran tayo ng katubigan pero laging naisasantabi ang kapakanan ng ating mga mangingisda.” ●
