The activist fishefolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Tuesday pressed President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to distribute urgently and for free vast hectares of fishponds and aqua farms to small fishermen through organizations and cooperatives all over the country.
In a press statement, Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France estimated that there are over 8000,000 hectares of fishponds, prawn farms and aquafarms which are under the control of multinational corporations and big landlords engaged in the exportation of fishery products.
France blamed the implementation of the 25-year old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) paved the way for the exemption of large-tracts of aquafarms and fishponds from distributing these fish farms to the fisheroflk organizations and cooperatives.
The Pamalakaya leader recalled that due to fatal loopholes of CARP, the landlord dominated Congress was able to pass a law that amended RA 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Refrom Law (CARL) which is known as Republic Act No. 7881 or An Act Amending Certain Provisions of RA 6657, entitled An Act Instituting a Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program to Promote Social Justice and Industrialization, Providing Mechanisms for Its Implementation, and for Other Purposes. It was enacted on February, 1995.
Under RA 7881, fishponds and prawn farms and other aquafarms used for production of fishery products for export are exempted from the implementation of CARP. France said the amendment to the equally bankrupt CARP denied some 250,000 fish workers to become agrarian reform beneficiaries and nurture these fish farms.
France noted that the big landlords and multinational corporations engaged in exportation of fish products evaded distribution of these fish farms courtesy of CARP and the amending law exempting fishponds and aquaculture farms from land and aquatic reform.
Quoting a study made by several non-government groups in local fisheries in 1995, Pamalakaya said some 50, 305 hectares of fishponds in Central Luzon, Western Visayas and Western Mindanao were exempted from distribution due to CARP and RA 7881.
The group said, for those who are leasing the lands like foreign corporations, the government allowed them to conduct aquafarming for 25 years renewable for another 10-25 years and so on and so forth under the Fishpond Lease Agremeent (FLA), which is provided under the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998.
Pamalakaya is supporting the passage of Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) authored by the late Anakpawis partylist Rep. Crispin Beltran and outgoing congressman Rafael Mariano. The bill which is having a hard time to get Congress’ nod, endorses the free distribution of fish ponds and aquafarms to fisherfolk organizations and cooperatives, while unproductive ponds will be rehabilitated for restoration to their previous state as part of the country’s marine areas.
Pamalakaya said the 25-year old CARP, the amending law RA 7881 and the Fisheries Code of 1998 also triggered the mass occupation of two of the biggest lakes in the country— Laguna Lake and Taal Lake by export-oriented fishery companies.
The group said due to the integration of the local economy to globalization and one-sided free trade, more and more fishlords, in joint venture with transnational fishing corporation and foreign investors went on resource grabbing spree, occupying almost every coastal and inland waters for mass production of fishery products for exports at the expense of people’s livelihood and marine and inland environment.
Pamalakaya said for instance, due to CARP, RA 7881, Fisheries Code and the drive for export bane industrialization, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) for quite sometime had allowed big fish pen operators to occupy 33 percent of Laguna Lake for fish pen operations or nearly 30,000 hectares of the lake which is way beyond the allowable limit of 9,000 hectares or 10 percent of the lake area.
The militant group said the fisherfolk demand for free distribution of vast tracts of hectares of fishponds and aqua farms is legitimate, politically, morally and legally correct. Pamalakaya said the next immediate step to realize this hope for social justice is to compel the legislative branch to repeal laws such as CARP, RA 7881 and the Fisheries Code of 1998.
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