‘Build roads, stop fish smuggling’

A network of agriculture groups said the government must ramp up efforts to scrutinize smugglers and importers diverting fish products to the wet market that violates existing regulations.

In a press statement early this week, Tugon Kabuhayan, an umbrella group of food security advocates, said government authorities should hasten the construction of more roads from fish facilities to markets.

The group also noted that there is an urgent need to strictly implement pre-border inspections and improve in-country laboratory tests for fish imports.

"We need to support initiatives that will ensure steady fish supply at stable prices in the country and improve the industry and benefit fisherfolk and consumers alike," Tugon Kabuhayan Convenor Asis Perez said.

Fisheries dep't creation

Perez, a former director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, also said the group supports the recommendation of Senator Raffy Tulfo to create a separate department of fisheries.

He reiterated that Tugon Kabuhayan and other fisheries stakeholders have been advocating to expand BFAR into a department.

"Although we agree that there is a need to rationalize government size, BFAR's mandate has a very wide scope, but the agency is very small compared to its mandate."

"The area covered by BFAR which includes all the waters and the exclusive economic zone is eight times bigger than the land and BFAR is mandated to manage the same," he said.

Tulfo also said the Senate wants to help BFAR in disseminating significant information to the public.