Something fishy

The irony would be funny if it weren’t so disheartening. Galunggong or round scad, the poor Filipino’s fish, is now imported. Ever since President Corazon Aquino chose its daily price as the economic indicator of the state of the impoverished Filipino’s everyday way of life, galunggong has been an ubiquitous part of our lexicon. Playfully nicknamed “GG,” galunggong has since been used by other politicians for the same purpose.

Cooked several ways, galunggong is an extremely popular ingredient in Filipino kitchens due to its relative affordability and ready supply, as in the past it was abundant in Philippine waters and easily found itself in many Filipino fisherman’s net at the end of the day.

But now in the presidency of another Aquino – Corazon’s son Benigno III – the most Filipino of fishes is being imported in eye-popping numbers. While fish continues to make up a huge 80 percent of the Filipinos’ daily intake of animal protein (the average Filipino eats 28 kilos of fish every year), the local supply of galunggong, among other fish, has dwindled to the point that it can no longer meet local market demand.

This was what the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources stated when it announced at a forum that the country is now importing large numbers of galunggong from China and Taiwan, part of the 900,000 metric tons of fish now being imported by the Philippines. Asis Perez, director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said that the local market has been opened to imported fish because the domestic fish catch has been declining. Most of the fishing areas are heavily fished and “need to be fixed because there is an indication of a decline,” Perez said.

But the imported fish are exclusively for institutional buyers like processing plants, Perez continued. How come a large number of the imported fish are finding their way into the Philippine wet markets? “There is a leakage,” Perez confirmed, adding that the BFAR is now going to go after erring importers who had diverted imported fish, such as galunggong, into the local wet markets: “[Importers] are supposed to use imported fish only in their own facilities, either they supply canneries or plants, or institutional buyers like restaurants. It is prohibited in their franchise or permit to sell or divert these to the wet markets.”

The imported galunggong is bought at a cheaper price than its locally sourced kind, and since it’s virtually impossible to distinguish one from the other, they are practically sold almost at the same price which is still steep by the poor Filipino’s standards. Which tells us that the sale of imported fish in local wet markets, which has been going on unabated and unchecked, is not helping ordinary Filipinos at all.

While it is the Department of Agriculture’s and BFAR’s mandate to ensure a steady supply of fish in the market for the Filipinos’ daily use, they also must look into helping the fishermen whose livelihood is being threatened by the dwindling supply of fish in Philippine seas. What are they doing to help these fishermen, now steadily falling into poverty due to reduced catches and minuscule wages while the prices of practically every basic commodity is rising?  How did things get this bad? Where were they all the while?

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has echoed the need to formally open the nation’s markets to fish imports. The agriculture department has noted a terrible drop in the performance of the fisheries subsector: “Commercial and municipal fish catch declined due to overfishing, illegal fishing, and rough seas and strong winds during the second semester caused by several typhoons.”

Most important among the BFAR’s proposals to help the fishermen is a proposed quota on the importation of fish. As ludicrous as it sounds, there is no such quota currently in place, meaning importers can bring in as many metric tons of fish as they wish. “As long as they pass phyto-sanitary inspection, they can come in. That is why we want to put a quota, a cap,” Perez said.

We have now come to the point where the relationship between fish, fisherman and the fish-eating Filipino has come to nearly apocalyptic status. What the situation reveals is the need for President Aquino’s administration to pay serious attention to the rapidly deteriorating state of Philippine fisheries and the sad state of the Filipino fisherman, something that only came up because the poor Filipino can no longer afford the poor Filipino’s fish, something that really smells fishy.