Christians for National Liberation (CNL)-Northern Negros, a group of revolutionary Christians, welcomed Bacolod City Bishop Patricio Buzon’s stance against the Supreme Court decision that allows commercial fishing in municipal waters. Bishop Buzon released a message last week to defend the livelihood of small fisherfolk.

CNL-Northern Negros spokesperson Fr. Antonio L. Marasigan called on the Catholic faithful to actualize Bishop Buzon’s message through collective efforts to build broad resistance to the Supreme Court decision.

In December 2024, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that allowed large companies and businesses to fish in municipal waters (the sea area within 15 kilometers from the shore). This decision will damage the livelihood of around 2 million fishers.

Small fishers using traditional and manual fishing methods cannot compete with commercial fishers’ advanced, and often destructive, equipment and technology, it said. Large fishing vessels’ advanced equipment quickly deplete all types of marine resources.

Bishop Buzon said the church has the duty to defend those who experience oppression, especially if they belong to the poorest sectors of society. “For these people, fishing is not mere simple livelihood but their only means of survival. Therefore, depriving them access to the sea also endangers their lives and future,” Bishop Buzon’s message said.

Bishop Buzon appealed to chaplains, parishes, lawmakers, and religious organizations in the surrounding coastal towns to strengthen their stand against the policy to prevent its implementation.

According to CNL-Northern Negros, even before the decision, foreign and local commercial fishers have already been plundering the Philippine seas and encroaching on municipal waters, and this will certainly intensify under the decision. On the island of Negros, companies that destroy the seas include CHL Fishing Industry, Inc., Asia Pacific Allied Fishing Ventures Corp., E&L Fishing Corp., and others, the group said.

The group denounced the Fisheries Code of the Philippines for its inutility to protect and defend the welfare of fishers. “The problem confronting the fisherfolk lies not only in the laws…[but] in an evil system that catered to the immeasurable greed of the few ruling class that thrive on exploitation and oppression of the poor and disadvantaged classes of society,” it said.

It blamed the current semi-colonial and semi-feudal ruling system as the main reason for the suffering and abhorrent condition of the people. “Thus, the fight to protect the lives and livelihood of small fisherfolks is connected to the broader struggle for national freedom and democracy,” the revolutionary Christian group said.

The group called on laypeople and clergy to join the fisherfolk and defend their rights. “It is a moral obligation of every Christian to defend the cause of the poor, fight for their liberation and crush the oppressors,” said CNL-Northern Negros.