If the world will allow China to put up a “no fishing” sign around the “Great Wall of Sand” it is aggressively building in the West Philippine Sea, it will “starve” Filipinos of a staple in their diet.
This was the dire warning aired on Thursday by Sen. Ralph Recto, who added that the ban will hit us where it hurts most—our stomach.
“There lies the greatest danger of Chinese incursion in our territory. It’s a formula for starvation. More than a national security question, it involves food security,” Recto said in a statement.
“This is the reason why, regardless of our politics, whoever our bet for 2016 is, we should unite in support of our Philippine delegation to The Hague. Because when China succeeds—through might, not right—in making the West Philippine Sea its exclusive fishpond, it will not only lead to the disappearance of a large chunk of space from our territory, but also fish from our table,” Recto added.
He said annual per-capita consumption of fish and marine products in the Philippines is about 36 kilograms.
“Filipinos eat about 3 kilos of round scad every year, 2 kilos of tuna and 4 kilos of dried fish, including one kilo of fish sauce,” Recto said.
Of the 4.7 million metric tons (MMT) of fish caught in 2013, commercial fishers contributed 1.06 MMT, while municipal fishermen added 1.26 MMT. The rest, or 2.37 MMT, was raised through aquaculture. By one estimate, more than three-fourths of total commercial and municipal fishing production came from the rich fishing grounds in the West Philippine Sea.
“Iyang sardinas natin sa lata, karamihan galing doon [Most of our canned sardines came from there],” he said.
The value of what commercial and municipal fishermen produced in 2013 was about P150 billion.
A house of Representatives think tank estimated that 20 percent to 25 percent of all the country’s annual fish catch come from the waters west of Palawan and Luzon’s western seaboard, two areas now embraced by the Chinese nine-dash line map.
Recto described the West Philippine Sea as “a nursery, breeding ground” of our fish.
He said China’s push into the Philippine water was motivated in part to secure rich fishing grounds that will satiate Chinese appetite for marine products.
“It’s a market of 1.360 billion people, each eating 31 kilos of fish each year. Who would not be tempted, when the West Philippine Sea is part of the Coral Triangle, one of the richest fishing grounds in the world?” Recto said.
Encompassing 5.7 million square kilometers of ocean waters in six countries, the Coral Triangle supports the sustenance of 120 million people who earn $6 billion a year in fishery exports and tourism.
The Arbitral Tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration is presently hearing the Philippines’s complaint against China’s excessive territorial claims at the Peace Palace at The Hague, Netherlands.