Liberalization and deregulation:
Cruel impact on the fisheries sector

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The image cast by Philippine fisheries is an image of crisis. Due to the policies of liberalization and deregulation, foreign monopoly capitalists in connivance with the local comprador bourgeoisie and big landlords have intensified their onslaught on the sector. Big foreign and local capitalist fishermen rake in millions in the face of the intensifying destitution of poor fisherfolk and fisheries workers. Meanwhile, where there used to be bountiful fish harvests, the same evil policies that favor the foreign and local ruling classes have reduced annual yields. This further exposes the regime's much vaunted "food security" slogan for the sick joke that it is. All this begets widespread unrest — unrest that leads to the revolutionary and militant solidarity and resistance of the masses of fisherfolk.

The Philippines has a large and significant fisheries sector because of the country's archipelagic character. The country has up to eight million fisherfolk, who account for almost 10% of the population. Fisheries and grains farming comprise the twin pillars of the local economy's primary sector.

The country's seas and rivers are among the world's richest in fish and other aquatic resources. The Philippines ranks 11th worldwide in the volume of fish caught. It is second only to Indonesia in the volume of tuna caught in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. It is also one of the leading suppliers of tuna to the US. It is the world's leading producer of seaweed and other aquatic plants.

But despite the wealth of its rivers and seas, more than half (about 4.3 million) of Filipino fisherfolk are at the bottom 30% of the population in terms of income. Ninety-five percent (95%) of this number are poor fisherfolk who, like the rest of the peasant masses, suffer feudal and semifeudal exploitation at the hands of merchants and the big comprador bourgeoisie.

There are three strata within the fisheries sector. The first is comprised of big commercial fishermen who own modern fishing vessels and big aquafarms and who often have foreign business partners. The middle stratum is comprised of fisherfolk who own motorized boats and other fishing gear that are moderate in size and capacity. Poor fisherfolk who do not have their own fishing boats or own small, usually non-motorized dug-out canoes and use inferior nets and other fishing gear, comprise the lowest stratum.

The situation of poor fisherfolk and the country's entire fisheries sector has been worsening since the '70s with the onslaught of liberalization and deregulation. Through these policies, the reactionary government has systematically favored the interests of foreign and big capitalist fishermen and suppressed the rights of poor fisherfolk.

Liberalization and deregulation: Added burden to fisherfolk

The Marcos dictatorship implemented "partial deregulation" in 1972 by opening Philippine fisheries to foreigners and prioritizing direct foreign investment in the sector. "Free trade" was also approved and all tariffs on the importation of fish and related products were abolished under the RP-Japan Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation. In 1980, the World Bank imposed full deregulation in fisheries as a condition for foreign loans.

Consequently, the government phased out its subsidies to small and middle fisherfolk. Corporate fishfarming was encouraged along with joint export-import ventures. Even fishlanding ports and refrigeration plants were "leased" to foreigners. These changes paved the way for the full-blown liberalization and deregulation of the sector in the '80s.

Under Ramos, the export orientation of the fisheries sector was further emphasized. Incentives were provided for commercial fishing and aquaculture while small-scale fish capture in municipal waters was systematically suppressed.

Accordingly, commercial trawlers (those weighing more than three tons) previously banned from municipal waters now virtually lord it over the fishing grounds of the poor. With their gigantic nets, these trawlers leave hardly any fish for the poor fisherfolk. There are 3,000 commercial trawlers currently marauding the various municipal fishing grounds in the country.

The scope of Fishpond Lease Agreements (FLA) has also been widened. FLA holders are granted the right to convert shores and communal fishing grounds into private concessions for aquafarming for 50 to 75 years. Hundreds of thousands of fisherfolk and farmers who used to benefit from these lands and waters are thereby deprived of their rights and livelihood. At present, there are 3,705 FLA holders controlling an estimated 64,530 hectares nationwide. There are also 2,784 applications for FLAs currently being processed.

Aquafarming: Flawed sense of priorities

Despite the destructiveness of commercial aquaculture, the reactionary government considers it its top priority. Thirty-nine (39) areas in eight regions nationwide have been classified as Aquaculture Management Areas the equivalent of Key Production Areas in farming.

In 1988, the reactionary congress passed RA 7881, exempting more than 800,000 hectares of fishponds and prawn farms from distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. The law also affects more than 700,000 fisherfolk and some 200,000 workers in aquaculture.

The majority of big aquafarms are owned either by foreign or local corporations or by big landlords. They control an estimated 77% of brackish water fishponds (which comprise 94% of the total area occupied by aquafarms in the country). One of the biggest aquafarm owners, RA 7881 proponent Rep. James Chiongbian, owns 200 hectares of fishponds in Bulacan and Saranggani. When RA 7881 was enacted, there were at least 25 congressmen who owned or held stocks in big fishpond or prawn farm ventures or were involved in other fisheries-related businesses.

As what transpires in the conversion of agricultural lands to other uses, the expansion of commercial aquaculture causes widespread hunger and loss of livelihood among fisherfolk and farmers. In one instance, hundreds of fishing and farming families were deprived of subsistence and 400 hectares of mangrove forest were destroyed when Dole Philippines, a gigantic multinational agribusiness corporation, set up an aquafarm in Kiamba, Saranggani. Before this, Dole already owned a 143-hectare prawn farm in Cotabato City.

The reactionary government's restrictions on municipal fishing and its prioritization of aquafarming are patently proimperialist and anti-masses in design. For one, the propagation of imported bio-engineered fish species in aquafarms requires massive importation of feeds from foreign agribusiness corporations. Aquafarms moreover monopolize or control water resources that should be communally owned by local residents.

Widespread commercial aquafarming breeds another long-term disaster: the suppression of fish propagation due to the destruction of mangrove forests and coral reefs that serve as spawning grounds and habitats for fish. According to the government's own statistics, the volume of fish capture has been dwindling since 1996 while aquaculture production has been rising. Under the Ramos regime's Medium-Term Philippine Development Program, annual production growth targets for aquaculture and commercial fish capture were set at 5.8% and 4%, respectively. Meanwhile, the target growth rate for municipal fishing was limited to a mere 2% annually.

Crisis in the fisheries sector

While municipal fish capture remains as the sector's leading form of production, the volume of fish caught in municipal waters has been falling by an average of 2.2% annually from 1990 to 1995. The share of municipal fishing in overall production has also been reduced, from 50.94% in 1980 to only 36% in 1995. Thus, notwithstanding the richness and potential of the country's fishing grounds, the Philippines remains one of the leading importers of frozen sardines, salmon and tuna for local canneries and of fish meal for the local animal feeds industry.

Government suppression of their livelihood has also led to a reduction in the number of municipal fisherfolk from 773,042 in 1986 to only 675,677 in 1995 (reflecting a 13% decline over a period of nine years). Displaced fisherfolk continue to suffer intense exploitation and oppression, however, even as they shift to other means of livelihood in the city or in the countryside.

In 1997, the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) or RA 8435 was passed, reinforcing the pro-imperialist and antimasses fisheries policies of previous regimes. The law's foremost proponent, Edgardo Angara, has been appointed Secretary of Agriculture by Joseph Estrada. This underscores the Estrada regime's determination to push even further the limits of liberalization and deregulation in the fisheries sector.

This can only worsen the crisis engulfing Philippine fisheries and the country's entire agricultural sector. The masses of fisherfolk shall be forced to suffer further loss of livelihood, more intense hunger and greater hardship.

Condemned to misery, their only recourse is to fight.

00 July 1999
English Edition

	Editorial: Thoroughly expose, oppose and isolate the reactionary, puppet and fascist US-Estrada regime
	August 20: A gathering storm against the US-Estrada clique
	Conflicts among reactionaries will sharpen over the issue of constitutional change
	Oplan Makabayan: Fascist scheme of the US-Estrada regime
	Southern Tagalog's response to Oplan Makabayan: Launch tactical offensives, advance the mass movement
	Liberalization and deregulation: Cruel impact on the fisheries sector
	Danding Cojuangco's "corporative scheme": Another bane to farmers
	Coco levy: Still Danding's brew
	Cartels: Monopoly in the sugar industry and other leading crop lines
	October 1, 1999: Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese Revolution
	News