Gov’t urged to cut deals with neighboring countries

TO PRESERVE RP’S $1-B TUNA INDUSTRY:

A local chief executive of a city in Metro Manila has warned the government that the economy of Gen. Santos City, and Mindanao in general, would suffer immensely with the implementation of a two-year ban on tuna fishing in the Central and Western Pacific.

Makati City Mayor Jejomar “Jojo” Binay said Gen. Santos City’s tuna industry is worth $380 million annually and the projected 20 percent reduction in catch because of the ban would put 200 fishing boats out of business and cause hardship to 150,000 people who depend on the industry.

To avert this, Binay, the vice presidential candidate of the United Opposition (UNO) in the national elections in May, said the government must act immediately and negotiate an agreement with the country’s neighboring nations in South East Asia.

“(The) government should waste no time in cutting deals with neighboring countries to allow Filipino fishermen to continue catching tuna and thus preserve the viability of the $1-billion industry, the lifeblood of (Gen. Santos) city,” he stressed.

Binay said the ban on tuna fishing imposed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) on New Year’s Day “militates not only against our fishermen but also out national interest.”

He expressed suspicions that developed countries are pushing for the ban since their fishing vessels could actually catch tuna further north since large schools of tuna actually swim toward cooler waters after devouring planktons thriving in tropical countries.

There is no ban on tuna fishing in international waters north of the equator.

A confessed tuna lover, Binay called for the national government to hold immediate negotiations with Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and other nations that belong to the tuna corridor and the Coral Triangle.

“These bilateral and multilateral accords must be cut soonest to save fishermen, mostly from Gen. Santos City, from losing their only source of income,” he said.

Binay particularly called on the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs to act with dispatch to prevent the economic catastrophe that a faithful implementation of the ban would bring to the fishing sector.

He said these agreements must be forged, noting that an earlier deal with Indonesia allowing Filipino fishermen to catch tuna in its territorial waters was never renewed.

“It is time for the DA to renegotiate such an accord and support the needs of the tuna capital of the country. It is fair to say that without tuna, Gen. Santos City would suffer immensely.

“We have to craft bilateral agreements, not only with Indonesia but also with Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, which actually harbor about 60 percent of the annual global tuna catch,” Binay said.

The mayor of the business hub of the country noted that the ban, which covers areas parallel to Palau, above Papua New Guinea, below Micronesia and near the Solomon Islands, comes in the wake of the demand by environmentalists and many countries for a steep reduction in the catch of the Atlantic Bluefin tuna, which the Japanese government opposes.

Japan is the world’s biggest tuna consumer and buys bulk of the output of Philippine commercial fishing corporations.

“We all want to preserve the habitat of tuna and increase the fish population but it must be done in a manner that does not penalize Filipino fishermen who use methods like line fishing to catch mature tuna,” Binay said.

He moreover called for cooperation in assuring that only fishing methods that do not harm the environment and do not deplete the fish population are permitted.