Environment group urges creation of Fisheries, Aquatic Resources Dept

A day before the 2019 State of the Nation Address, environmental group Oceana urged President Rodrigo Duterte to prioritize the creation of a full government department that would handle the country's fisheries issues.

"We expect him to include in the priority legislative measures the creation of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources," said Oceana vice president Atty. Gloria Ramos in a statement.

"At the rate the destruction of our fisheries and marine biodiversity is going and with the worsening poverty and hunger among the coastal and fisherfolk communities, we believe that an independent cabinet portfolio, separate from the Department of Agriculture is urgent."

The current Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is an agency under the Agriculture Department.

Ramos added that Duterte needed to strictly implement the Fisheries Code to avoid unreported and unregulated fishing in the country's waters.

Oceana also urged the President to certify bills banning single-use plastics as urgent given that the Philippines was the third worst ocean plastic polluter. — Dona Magsino/DVM, GMA News