Press Release
April 27, 2007

Angara alarmed over delay in delineation
of 200-mile RP exclusive economic zone

Sen. Edgardo J. Angara today said that the Philippines must delineate its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) before 2008 or else the Philippine waters would be open to foreign fishers.

Angara said that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) had given all involved countries to map out their 200-mile EEZ by 2008 or else they would lose the exclusivity in the exploitation of marine resources.

The UNCLOS deadline is a year away and yet, our EEZ has not been mapped out yet, Angara said.

He identified the Department of Foreign Affairs and NAMRIA, an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, as the ones responsible in delineating the 200-mile EEZ.

If we fail to meet the deadline, anybody can harvest tuna and other marine products within the 200-mile zone, he warned.

He said that the $450million tuna industry, mainly based in General Santos City and the Saranggani Bay, would suffer from the intrusion of foreign fishermen into what is supposed to be exclusive waters of the Philippines.

Tuna is one of the bright spots in Philippine economy, and it would be a shame if it loses its economic luster because of bureaucratic inefficiency, Angara said.

Angara, a former Agriculture secretary, said that the operations of seven tuna canning factories in General Santos would slow down if the Philippines fails to delineate its 200-mile EEZ before the deadline. The seven factories have an average capacity of 750 metric tons a day. He said that as much as 160,000 fishermen and related workers are involved in the tuna industry, and most of them would lose their jobs unless the UNCLOS deadline is met

Angara said that he felt a personal stake in the issue because it was during his tenure as agriculture secretary that the General Santos City fishport was modernized and expanded.

The expansion and modernization of the fishport drew investors who poured millions of dollars into the facility and employed thousands of workers. That was one of my main contributions to the city and to the industry, and I do not want it to go to waste, he said.

He pointed out that even before the delineation of the EEZ, hundreds of fishing boats, mainly from China and Taiwan, had already been caught poaching on Philippine waters.

These foreign fishermen could soon fish in our waters legally unless we do our job and determine the metes and bounds of our territory, Angara said.

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