FORMER senator and presidential assistant for food security and agricultural modernization, Francis Pangilinan, earlier expressed support to the recent call for the creation of a Department of Fisheries.

“We need to change the existing policy and the establishment of the Department of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is “a step in the right direction,” he said during his recent visit in Dagupan City to campaign for his senatorial bid.

Leaders of fishery industry earlier called for the creation of the new department in lieu of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources under the Department of Agriculture.

“It’s not right that while the national territory is four-fifths water and one-fifth land, the budget for agriculture- more than four-fifths goes to the land and not even one-fifth goes to our aquamarine resources,” he added.

He said with proper support, the Philippines can be the “Aquamarine Powerhouse of Asia,” if not of the entire world, for its rich aquamarine resources.

“The beauty of the ocean is that it’s resilient, it can actually regenerate,” he noted, citing that things can be done to ‘rejuvenate’ the ocean.

Pangilinan noted that one of the complaints of the fishery sector is that whenever there are international agreements or treaties on fishing, all other countries have minister level representatives while Philippines only has a bureau director.

The Liberal Party bet cited countries such as Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia have a separate department for their fishery industry.

Meanwhile, Pangilinan said, if given the opportunity, he would push for the Sagip Saka Bill which, according to him, would “move farmers and fisherfolk from subsistence farming to an enterprise management and development farming.”

A major component of the said bill is to enable government to buy directly from farmers and fishermen, he said. (Johanne Macob)

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