Asia Times: Philippines angles for illegal fishermen


	November 3, 2001	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Philippines angles for illegal fishermen

CEBU CITY, Philippines - In an effort to curtail illegal and destructive fishing activities, Manila has launched a program aimed at empowering local government units to enforce fishery and coastal resource-management laws.

Under the program, qualified coastal municipalities would be provided state-of-the-art patrol boats equipped with global positioning systems (GPS). To qualify for participation in the program, coastal municipalities must meet requirements set by the national government, said Corazon Corrales, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) regional director.

She said a qualifying municipality should be experiencing high rates of illegal fishing and should be under the technical assistance program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Coastal Resources Management (DENR-CRM).

In addition, Corrales said, coastal municipalities must be certified for pre-qualification by the regional joint selection team of BFAR, DENR and the Department of Interior and Local Government.

Before the local government units can receive a patrol boat, it must have an operational and trained coastal law-enforcement unit composed of local police and deputized fish wardens working in close coordination with PNP Maritime police, she added.

(Asia Pulse/PNA)