Tuna industry leaders in the South Cotabato-Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-Sarangani-General Santos City (Socsksargen) region have urged the current 15th Congress to craft a law elevating to department status the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), which is now under the Department of Agriculture.
In this way, they expect fishery issues to promptly get the attention of the national leadership, since the new department will be directly under the Office of the President. “While the fisheries sector of other countries are of the department or ministry level, the Philippine fisheries [agency] remains at bureau level,†the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc. (SFFAII) noted in its resolution.
The resolution, copies of which were sent to the Office of the President and both chambers of Congress, said the Philippine fishing industry accounts for 4% of gross domestic product and 19% of gross value-added in agriculture.
Calls to make BFAR a department come amid mounting concerns over depleting fish stock in both the country’s and international waters in the Pacific Ocean. The industry has been pressing the government to forge bilateral pacts with other states in the Pacific to allow local fishers to operate in their waters.
SFFAII President Marfenio Y. Tan said that because legislation involves a lengthy process, the national government should, in the meantime, appoint a full-time undersecretary for Fisheries.
While lawmakers were not immediately available for comment on SFFAII’s proposal, it will be recalled that a similar measure seeking the creation of a separate department of information and communications technology had failed to get support since at least the 13th Congress, largely due to the additional costs such a new layer of bureaucracy would require.
