Oceana taps LMP to protect municipal waters
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The volume of catch in the municipal waters of the country has continued to dwindle in the past ten years and Oceana Philippines is asking the help of mayors of coastal towns in the country to reverse this trend.
Lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos, vice president of Oceana Philippines and who heads the initiatives for Ocean restoration and marine diversity protection in the Philippines, said the steep decline in the catch from the municipal waters can be attributed to overfishing, which comes as a result of “weak enforcement of environmental laws.”
Based on the fisheries statistics of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the volume of catch in the municipal waters has dropped to below 950,000 metric tons in 2018 from the 1.2 million metric tons of catch in 2009.
“We have very weak law enforcement despite very strong laws,” Ramos said.
On Thursday, September 26, Oceana Philippines held a conference with mayor-members of the League of Municipalities in the Philippines (LMP) from coastal towns in the country.
Oceana is an international nongovernment organization that advocates protection and restoration of marine diversity.
Ramos said their organization has been offering capacity building and trainings to local government units (LGUs) in order for the latter to invoke policies for the protection of the seas.
“This is a joint endeavor of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines. The purpose is to get their ideas and proposed solutions for the challenges that they are facing in protecting the municipal waters,” said Ramos.
Ramos said the government units of concerned towns should be capacitated in addressing issues on illegal fishing and overfishing of commercial fishers in the municipal waters.
“Under the fisheries code as amended, jurisdiction over municipal waters is lodged with coastal cities and municipalities,” Ramos said.
Liloan Mayor Christina Garcia-Frasco, president of the LMP Cebu Chapter, was not in attendance in the conference.
The sole Cebuano mayor in the conference was Mayor Mariano Martinez of the coastal town of San Remigio in northern Cebu./elb
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