Philippine Tuna industry players are hopeful that the country’s Senate will ratify before August an international fisheries convention that sets the conservation and management of tuna resources along the Pacific fishing grounds, including the Philippines.

Domingo Teng, president of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing Associations and Allied Industries Inc. (SFFAAII), said the Senate’s committee on foreign relations promised to fasttrack the ratification of the convention, dubbed Multilateral High Level Convention (MHLC) on Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

“Hopefully, the senate would be able to ratify the convention before the August meeting of the scientific committee of the western and central Pacific fisheries commission,” he said.

The MHLC and its governing body, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, were officially launched last December by at least 18 nations in a conference in Pohnpei, Micronesia.

The MHLC convention specifically provides for the establishment of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission that would determine the total allowable catch of tuna species and allocate catch among its member-countries.

But the Philippines, which was among the primary signatories to the MHLC’s “Convention on Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Species in the Western and Central Pacific” forged by at least 29 nations in September 2000, was only granted an observer status in the new tuna commission pending the ratification of the MHLC.

Teng said Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who chairs the foreign relations committee, personally vowed to ensure the immediate ratification of the MHLC during a recent Senate hearing.

During the hearing, which was attended by key tuna industry players and stakeholders all over the country, Teng said they stressed to the committee the importance and urgency of ratifying the tuna convention.

He said they specifically underscored various benefits of being a signatory to the convention, especially “the country’s participation in implementing and creating management measures to ensure sustainability of tuna resources in the Pacific Ocean as well as providing the country a direct role in the formulation of a catch quota system.” Teng said that being a Malacañang-certified bill, the Senate foreign relations committee vowed to “move as fast as we can”.

“This positive development on the MHLC ratification is the result of the Federation’s initiative and effort in coordination with other cooperating government and non-government agencies. We will continue to work closely with the office of Sen. Santiago for the immediate ratification of the convention,” Teng said.

Ian Fredeluces, a technical assistant of the SFFAAII, said officials from the Confederation of Philippine Tuna Industries is currently representing the country in the MHLC as observers.

Fredeluces, who is coordinating SFFAAII's participation in the MHLC issue, said the Philippines has no voting rights in any agreement or decision made by the tuna commission. He said such situation places the country “on the losing end” as it could not fully hold its position in any agreement or policy that would be decided by the commission.

During the tuna commission’s initial meeting last December, the members agreed to regulate fishing on the high seas beyond the Pacific Island’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

Proposals also came up for the commission to set limits on the tuna catch to conserve the region's tuna fishery.