Fisheries sector needs more gov’t support — Sen. Pangilinan

The government must address the problem of a declining fisheries subsector, said Senate committee on agriculture chairman Francis Pangilinan. “It would be a waste of an immense natural bounty if we fail to address the issues that hound our fisheries sector," he said One of Pangilinan’s suggestions is the designation of an Undersecretary for Fisheries, calling it a “crucial first step" in helping the sector. "Our national territory is one-fifth land and four-fifths water,” he said. “We must ensure that we achieve a balancing of priorities and not leave fisheries behind. We must allocate a considerable amount of our resources both human and material to address the fisheries sector's many concerns. According to data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, the fisheries sector’s output dropped by 2.5 percent in the first nine months of 2012 due a decline in the commercial fish catch. According to the Department of Agriculture, crops, livestock and poultry buoyed the agricultural sector’s small, 1.93-percent growth in the first nine months of the year. —BM, GMA News