P80-m livelihood program to help over 370,000 fishermen in EEZ
The Marcos administration will launch its “Layag WPS” project or the Livelihood Activities to Enhance Fisheries Yield and Economic Gains (Layag) from the West Philippine Sea aimed at protecting Filipino fishermen as well as state floating assets amid continuing incursions of Chinese vessels in the area.
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources spokesman Nazario Briguera said the government has about P80 million to give comprehensive support to fishermen in the West Philippine Sea.
“BFAR will launch our Layag WPS project in the next few days. We are planning to package this as a special project for this year,” he said in a press briefing on Saturday.
Briguera’s announcement came days after a Chinese Navy ship tailed a BFAR multi-mission vessel, BRP Francisco Dagohoy, in an area six nautical miles southwest of Pag-asa Island, which is well within the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.
The rare encounter with China’s “gray” or military ship after BRP Dagohoy carried P4.95 million worth of fishing and post-harvest equipment to fisherfolk groups in Pag-Asa Island.
Briguera, in an earlier interview, said fisheries production in the West Philippine Sea has dropped by seven percent between 2021 and 2022.
Based on Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data, production was down to 275,872 metric tons of fish in 2022, from 295,332 MT in the previous year.
“When we say total production in the West Philippine Sea, we are not just talking about Pag-asa Island. We are referring to the total production of provinces fronting the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
There are at least 373,733 fisherfolk that depend on the West Philippine Sea, BFAR data showed.
While the drop in fish production was attributed primarily to the frequent visit of typhoons in the country, Briguera admitted that removing “hindering factors” such as the presence of Chinese vessels could help boost output.
“[If there is no Chinese activity], is it possible to increase fish production in the WPS if there are no issues like this? I would say yes. If we remove these hindering factors, we can better take advantage of the resources in the West Philippine Sea,” he said during yesterday’s press briefing.
Citing data from the UP Marine Science Institute, Briguera said “the value of fisheries resources in WPS could be billions of pesos.”
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, and has rejected an arbitral ruling in favor of the Philippines that invalidated its massive maritime claim.