Press Statement of Deputy Speaker and Batangas Rep. Ralph G. Recto

September 25, 2023

If harassing fishermen were a water sports in the Asian Games, China will sweep all the medals.

It treats the entire WPS as its exclusive practice area. 

And it has fenced off Bajo de Masinloc, claiming it as a backyard fishpond, and declaring it off limits to its true owners — the Filipinos.

Some of the fish it feeds its 1.412 billion citizens are poached from Philippine waters, vacuum-cleaned from our rich reefs.

The value of this stolen fish is in the billions of pesos, not annually, but monthly.

The Chinese fishing militias help pull off this great ocean robbery, by serving the dual purpose of harassing Filipino boats and ships, and by harvesting the bounty of the seas, both done in illegal and dangerous manners.

Because of this Chinese blockade, share of our fish catch in the WPS, according to BFAR, has dwindled to 7 percent of total national fisheries production. 

Chinese constriction of WPS cripples a pillar of our food security, as that area contributes almost 30% of commercial fisheries output.

And as we grapple with fish shortage, partly due to the fact that our access to WPS has been denied, we resort to imports.

And the painful irony is that we buy fish from China – the very source of our discontent.

By value, China is the number one source of our imported fish, accounting for a robust one third (32.92 %), valued at USD 247 million or about P12.145 billion in 2021.

By volume, 30.58 % ang share ng China, or 158,088 MT out of the 516,898 MT imported during the same year.

Ibig sabihin, mula sa inangkat sa China, pwedeng bigyan ng halos tig-1.5 kilos na isda ang bawat Pilipino.

Ang tanong: Is this a case of balikbayan fish? Hinuli dito sa atin ng iligal, ngunit ibinenta at ibinalik ng ligal? If true, this is the worst kind of fish migration.

Kamakailan lang, naglabas ang pamahalaan ng pahintulot sa pag-a-angkat ng 35,000 toneladang isda na darating sa fourth quarter ng taon, at maaaring ibenta lang sa mga palengke.

But the big  – and worrisome – picture here is that since 2016, volume and value of our fish imports are growing.

In 2021, import volume jumped 31.48% from the previous year.

Nagkahalaga ito ng P36.89 billion. Bawat araw P101 milyon na halaga ng isda ang lumanding  sa ating bansa. Sa kwentang ito, hindi  pa kasama ang smuggled.

Kaya ang ginagawa ng China ay isang malakas na suntok sa ating sikmura.

By cutting our access to a major protein source, China is playing a different kind of hunger games, making fish scarce for us, while satiating its people’s large appetite for seafood.

China must be called out for what it is really doing in the WPS: a food blockade that is a crime against humanity.