Senators scold BFAR over late action vs illegally diverted pampano, pink salmon

Senators Raffy Tulfo and Cynthia Villar on Monday chided the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) over its late action against the illegal diversion of pink salmon and pampano to wet markets.

At a Senate hearing, BFAR officer-in-charge Demosthenes Escoto explained that the bureau had been implementing the Fisheries Administrative Order No. 195 since 1999. But they were prompted to reinforce this due to the prevalence of illegally diverted pampano and pink salmon to markets.

FAO 195 allows the importation, without the need for a certificate of  necessity to import (CNI), fresh/chilled/frozen fish and fishery/aquatic products for canning and processing purposes, including those undertaken by institutional buyers or accredited entities importing fish for final consumption or food requirements of hotels and restaurants.

"We have already been implementing that since its enactment in 1999. But recently, we received reports that there are a lot of illegally diverted fish and fishery products in the wet markets. And this has become prevalent, necessitating the bureau to expand its operation and adopt an end to end monitoring of imported products," Escoto told the senators.

Since the release of the FAO in 1999, Escoto said they had been employing pre-border, border, and post-border controls.

Market monitoring was just part of their expanded initiative to address the issue, he added.

However, Tulfo wanted to know why fish vendors seemed to be unaware of the administrative order.

"Saan niyo po ini-implement? Saang palengke dahil kung meron po kayong ginagawang implementation bakit nagkalat yung pagtitinda ng mga pampano at pink salmon sa mga palengke at wala po tayong nabalitaan since 1999 na mayroong pong ganong batas. In fact, nobody knows about this not even the fish vendors na nakausap ko," he said.

Tulfo said the BFAR should have disseminated information on FAO 195 through the media as some of the small fish vendors are now afraid of losing their livelihood.

"Now, kung talagang bawal ito sana noon pa ginamit niyo ang media to disseminate the information na ito ang FAO 195 at ito ang nakasaad sa FAO 195. Noon pa sana naayos ang problema bakit too late na?" Tulfo continued.

Escoto admitted that there's a slight delay in the implementation but they were trying to address the issue now.

"We recognize ho sir na siguro it has been a little bit late but we are moving forward to address that. Kasi ho kung nakikita ho natin for the past years talaga hong dumami nang dumami," he said.

Villar also questioned how the order was being implementated.

"Paano niyo iimplement e wala nga kayong first border facility? We gave you money to establish the first border facility in 2019, di nai-implement hanggang ngayon," said Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform.

As an example of the lack of first border facilities in the country was the African Swine Fever outbreak in the country, Villar added. — DVM, GMA Integrated News