That’s according international marine protection organisation Oceana in response to an audit in its latest report on the Philippine fisheries sector.
It concluded that despite a strong legal framework under the Republic Act 10654 (RA 10654), implementation failures have left the system unable to effectively deter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
“While RA 10654 provides a robust legal framework, implementation failures at every level leave the law without teeth.”
The economic costs of these enforcement failures are significant.
IUU fishing was estimated to have cost the Philippines around PHP5.4bn (U$92.4m) from 2022 to 2023.
According to the report, destructive tools such as fine mesh nets were reported in 74 per cent of local government units.
The practice reduces future fish stocks by capturing juveniles before they can reproduce, while the fishing industry faces a shrinking workforce, with the average fisher aged 49 to 52 and younger generations leaving due to low incomes.
Despite its widespread use, enforcement remains “sporadic” and penalties have been insufficient, the report added.
“Our fishers are the ones putting food on our table, yet they are the ones going hungry and struggling from poverty. Instead of enforcing science-based recovery measures as mandated by law, DA-BFAR is peddling amendments that would let commercial fishing fleets raid municipal waters – the final refuge for our recovering stocks and small fishers. This is incompetence meeting greed, and it’s shrinking our fisheries and emptying people’s nets,” said Von Hernandez, Oceana Vice President
Can’t see, can’t act
Central to the problem was the government’s inability to reliably track fishing, said the report, despite mandated vessel monitoring under RA 10654.
It said that the implementation of vessel monitoring measures was delayed after the commercial fishing sector filed a court case and the Office of the President issued a suspension, which was later lifted, with BFAR now reporting more than 90% coverage.
“However, BFAR is still not sharing the data from VMM/Vessel Monitoring Measures on the fish catch data and actual apprehension and prosecution of violators. Registration systems produce conflicting counts of fishers and vessels. Nine years after RA 10654’s passage, enforcement gaps persist at every governance level,” the report highlighted.
The report also highlighted conflicting registration systems.
In 2022, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Census recorded 853,065 fishing operators while the BFAR Fisherfolk Registration (FishR) recorded over 1.17 million.
“These are not minor statistical variations but discrepancies large enough to undermine program targeting, resource allocation, and policy planning.”
The discrepancies are largest in high-pressure fishing regions, raising concerns over misdirected policy and resource allocation.
There are similar gaps with commercial vessel registration. In the Visayan Sea, BFAR records showed five registered trawlers in 2017 when actual field counts exceeded 300 vessels.
Between 2018 and 2023, there was registered commercial vessels declined by approximately 40 per cent, which the researchers said could be a sign that vessels are not registered, monitored, or tracked.
“You cannot manage what you cannot count. Policy decisions are being made on unreliable data and resources are being allocated to populations whose actual size is unknown. When vessels remain unregistered and unregulated, enforcement becomes fragmented and ineffective, creating conditions for IUU fishing. Enforcement targets vessels that may or may not appear in official registries. All these contribute to enforcement that is weak and could be significantly improved.”
Fisheries in freefall
The report underscored the critical state of Philippines’ fisheries, stating that it was losing 45 million kilograms of fish catch every year.
“We must protect the fisheries sector. It is a foundation of food security, culture and economic resilience. Its management must be guided by sound science,” said Alice Joan Ferrer, executive director of Too Big To Ignore Philippines and vice-chancellor of UP Visayas
It called for urgent action to implement the Fisheries Code and hold officials accountable, warning that the nation’s fisheries faced “imminent collapse”.
The nation has seen a 13-year decline with total losses reaching 591,136 metric tons of fish since 2010, driven by “weak law enforcement and failed governance”
Ferrer said: “We have all the laws, what we need to do is just to implement it correctly and for all agencies to perform their mandate.”
