Manila Seeking Bilateral Tuna Fishing Deal With PNG & Palauff

The Philippines has proposed a bilateral fishing agreement with Papua New Guinea to sustain the local tuna industry due to repeated push of giant global industry players, an official said.

Director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Malcolm Sarmiento said in press statement recently that the National Government, through the fisheries bureau, was keen on having fishing access for tuna with the two Pacific Island nations to further boost PNG’s tuna industry.

Palau is also being sought after to also forge a fishing agreement.

Mr. Sarmiento said the Philippines had already proposed and submitted drafts for memoranda of understanding for co-operation on fisheries to Palau and Papua New Guinea.

However, the document was not made available.

Mr. Sarmiento revealed this development as efforts to renew the bilateral fishing agreement with Indonesia.

The country’s fishing pact with Indonesia expired in December 2005 but was extended for another year.

Both sides were scheduled to meet last month in Manila but did not materialize.

Bayani Fredeluces, executive director of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries Inc, said the meeting was moved to January next year at the insistence of Indonesian officials, who wanted the meeting to take place in Jakarta.

“Negotiations to renew our fishing pact with Indonesia are still on going. The tuna industry is hoping for a renewal since Indonesia has rich fishing grounds,” Fredeluces said.

Mr. Sarmiento conceded that Indonesia’s tuna resources were significant to the local tuna industry, saying that the outcome of negotiations “will definitely affect Filipinos in the fishing sector, from the fishing crew to the Philippine fishing operators, to fish processors, traders and exporters”.

Call for the Government to forge fishing agreements with tuna resource-rich countries have been lingering in the past few years.

During the latest 9th National Tuna Congress here last month, the plenary approved a resolution reiterating the tuna industry’s demand for the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Foreign Affairs to fast track forging of bilateral or regional fishing pacts with neighboring countries and the Pacific Island nations.