Negros Small Fishers, NGO Deplore Gov’t Inaction on Plight

Small fisher leaders in Negros Occidental continue to bewail their grinding poverty and lack of government support on their socio-economic situation.

Eduardo Espinosa, chair of the Negros Occidental Federation of Small Fishers Associations (NOFSFA) and one of the core leaders of the Panay-Negros-Guimaras Crab Fishers Alliance ( PANEG-CA) said they are taking to task the government and its agencies including the DA-BFAR and coastal LGUs for their neglect of the small and marginal fishers and their families.

Worse, he said, the recent Supreme Court ruling which allows the legalized entry of commercial fishing into municipal waters will make life more difficult for the small fishers who will now compete with the big boats of commercial fishers inside the already heavily exploited local waters.

“We fish for many hours in a day and yet we get only 2 to 3 kilos, and such are not even enough to sustain us. And now the intrusion of commercial fishers into municipal waters will surely result in less fish or even nothing left for us” Espinosa lamented.

He said while they appreciated the recent pronouncement of Negros Occidental Gov.Eugenio Jose Lacson that the Supreme Court ruling will have adverse effects on the welfare of 472 small fisher organizations based in the province, however, many of their members have still to get financial aid and livelihood support from the province and coastal LGUs. Many LGUs, he averred, do not even have their own adequate fisheries budgets especially for livelihoods.

PRRM-NEGROS Area Manager Edwin Balajadia said the government especially in the province and coastal LGUs should urgently act to address the alarming poverty situation of the small fishers. He averred that according to the 2021 Report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), small fishers have become the poorest social grouping in the country with poverty incidence reaching more than 30 per cent which is even higher than the national poverty average. “If the government is serious in combatting poverty and environmental degradation in Negros, it should provide alternative and supplemental livelihoods to small fishers and promote and practice good governance in fisheries,” he said.

Renchie Alison, chair of the Hinigaran Federation of Small Fisherfolk Associations (FESFAH), the oldest existing and largest local fishers federation in the province with some 20 member people’s organizations (POs), echoed the sentiment of Espinosa, and said the encroachment of commercial fishing into their local waters will deplete further their fish resources. “I have fished for several days and get only an average of 3 kilos of small assorted fishes daily and these are not enough for even our basic needs.”

Alison and Espinosa also denounced the emerging threats of coastal and offshore mining in the province, adding that such projects will cause further destruction of fisheries and aquatic resources. Both leaders urged the provincial government and the BFAR to provide emergency assistance to their suffering members.

Both also said they are convenors of the newly-formed Visayas Fishers Farmers and Sectors Alliance for Good Governance (VIFFSA-4GG), an alliance that aims to advocate their Democratic and Reform Agenda (DRA) in the coming 2025 midterm elections and obtain assurances and promises from candidates to give support and responsive programs for the small fishers.* (Hazel Aghon, PRRM – Negros Secretariat)