Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday questioned the government’s plan to import some 60,000 metric tons of fish to address the alleged supply shortage after typhoon Odette since it may well be “killing” the country’s fishermen.
Lacson said importing fish may not be necessary since the country’s waters are rich of such natural resources.
“After killing our farmers by importing vegetables and fruits, it is the turn of our fishermen to die,” Lacson posted in is Twitter account Wednesday.
DA Secretary William Dar on Tuesday announced he signed a Certificate of Necessity to import some 60,000 metric tons of small pelagic fish to meet the demand for the first quarter of the year after typhoon Odette, which hit the country last month, caused damage to the fisheries sector.
Dar said the importation was meant to fill the 119,000 MT fish supply shortage in the first three months of the year.
Reports said the fisheries sector suffered more than P4 billion losses after typhoon Odette.
The DA sees a spike in fisheries and aquaculture input costs as global prices of petroleum and fish are on an upward trend.
Citing data obtained by his office on April 2021, Lacson said the country lost more than P1 billion yearly in foregone revenues from 2015 to 2020 on imported fish and seafood alone.
He also questioned the huge discrepancies between the records of the World Trade Organization and the Philippine Statistics Authority in terms of fish and seafood importation from the top 15 exporting countries from 2015 to 2020.
Lacson said it is also “revolting” that the Philippines has to import galunggong (scad mackerel) from China, whose vessels have bullied the country’s fishermen in the West Philippine Sea.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said importation “is a stop gap short term solution” to address the supply of fish in the country.
“But it compromises and undermines food security in the long run… It is quite unfortunate that for a country that has one of the longest coastlines in the world, we remain seafood insecure,” Pimentel said.
Sen. Imee Marcos said the government should not push through with its plan to import fish since “there are at least 35,000 metric tons still unsold from 2021 importation, plus those still to be delivered from the first quarter of 2022” based on fishermen from the Zamboanga and General Santos City areas
