Small-time fishers will have exclusive rights in municipal waters, measured at 15 kilometers from the shoreline of coastal local government units, under House Bill 11383 filed Monday.

The proposal would amend Section 17 of Republic Act (RA) No. 8550 or The Fisheries Code of 1998 that provides for the development, management and conservation of the country’s fisheries and aquatic resources.

Section 17 states that “duly registered fisherfolk organizations/cooperatives shall have preference in the grant of fishery rights’ by city/municipal councils.”

Under the measure, the word “preference” would be replaced with “exclusive rights.”

“The proposed change would give not only preference to duly registered fisherfolk organizations/cooperatives, but instead exclusive rights to fish in municipal waters,” bill author Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said in a news release.

Rodriguez filed the measure after the Supreme Court affirmed a decision of the Malabon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 170 declaring that Section 4 (58), Section 16 and Section 18 of the Fisheries Code as unconstitutional.

He said the court basically ruled that “the constitution does not allow Congress nor the executive agencies to limit the utilization of marine resources exclusively to subsistence fishermen, to the exclusion of large commercial fishing operators.”

“The RTC ruling allows big fishing companies to fish in municipal waters to the prejudice of small fisherfolk and subsistence fishermen,” he said.

“Not only is the social justice provision in the constitution reserving municipal waters for our small-scale fishers abandoned, the ruling is discarding the constitutional principle of local autonomy for local governments, which we ensured under the much-lauded RA 7160, the Local Government Code of 1991, which devolved essential basic services to our local governments, including environmental protection and enforcement of fisheries laws,” Rodriguez said.

He pointed out that Section 7 of Article XIII in the constitution explicitly provides for the protection of the rights of subsistence fisherfolk to the preferential use of local marine and fishing resources, both inland and offshore.

“By opening municipal waters to intense fishing pressure from commercial fishing, there is no way of reviving our fish stocks and this can eventually lead to a collapse,” Rodriguez said.

“Municipal fishing zones are not just lines on a map. They are lifelines for millions of people who depend on these waters for sustenance and survival. These waters are sanctuary for artisanal, small-scale fishers who don’t have the means to compete with advanced technology and large-scale operations of fishing vessels,” he said.

The lawmaker said 2.3 million fisherfolk, 51 percent of whom are engaged in capture fisheries, stand to lose their livelihood, driving them deeper into poverty and affecting their families and their communities if the ruling would not be reversed. (PNA)