Leaders of small fishers associations in Negros Occidental signed the Negros Small Fishers Democratic and Reform 10-point agenda during their indoor rally held in celebration of the National FIsherfolks Day at the Negros Residences in Bacolod City, Monday, May 29.
About 100 small fisherfolk leaders from various coastal towns and cities, public officials, and civil society members in the province participated in the indoor rally and signing of the 10-point agenda led by the Negros Occidental Federation of Small Fishers Association (NOFSFA).
The NOFSFA said they are calling for opposition to illegal fishing and illegal resource extraction in coastal areas and urged the government to increase the fisheries budget and assure more attention and support to the fisherfolk sector by creating a Department of Fisheries.
During the indoor rally dialogs were conducted between the fisherfolk and representatives from the local government, including Provincial Agriculturist Francis Causing, former Party-list Rep. Pete Pico, former Gov. Rafael Coscolluela, Kabankalan City Vice Mayor Raul Rivera, NOFSFA chair Eduardo Espinosa, PRRM-Negros Area Manager Edwin Balajadia, Manapla Crab fisher leader Gerry Bedoya, and North Iloilo small fisher leader Franz Laurio.
Balajadia said that NOFSFA celebrated Fisherfolks Day in advance on May 29 to allow its various member federations and alliances to hold their respective activities on May 31.
The National Fisherfolk Day was established through Presidential Proclamation No. 33.
The 10-point agenda calls for alleviating fisherfolk from mass poverty, opposing and stopping illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF), including catching and selling of berried and juvenile blue swimming crabs, stopping siltation and solid waste pollution in coastal and marine areas, stopping black sand mining or seabed quarrying, strengthening local Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Councils (FARMCs) as centers of good fisheries governance;
Strengthening small fishers’ participation in local governance, provision of supplemental, resilient, and alternative livelihoods to small fishers and their families, upgrading and updating of local fisheries plans and ordinances, integrating harvest control measures (HCMs) and localization of the BSC national management plan, the establishment of fisherfolk settlements, and strengthening small fishers organizations, alliances, and federations.
NOFSFA has more than 4,000 members based in more than 80 people’s organizations (POs) spread in various local federations and alliances in 13 coastal towns and cities of the province.*