Mar Pelayo, a 50-year-old Filipino fisherman Mar Pelayo, the disputed Scarborough Shoal in West Philippine Sea, Nov. 14, 2016. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Noting there is strength in numbers, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Tuesday night reminded fishers not to sail solo off Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.
Teodoro made the advice as fishers said they were driven away by China Coast Guard personnel while they were gathering seashells in the sandbank.
No Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) personnel were present when the incident occurred in the low-tide elevation known as Panatag Shoal and Bajo de Masinloc.
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With no PCG and BFAR personnel around, the fisherfolk would be safer if they were in groups, according to Teodoro.
“There is strength in numbers, and there is enough catch for all as long as you are unimpeded inside the Bajo de Masinloc,” Teodoro said in his speech during the forum by Manila Overseas Press Club in a Makati hotel.
Teodoro noted that an average fishing expedition of small vessels in the area could yield up to 15 tons of catch.
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“My best advice is to small fishermen is don’t go solo. A lot of times we also have fishermen rescued at sea because they were going solo,” Teodoro said.
Meanwhile, he also condemned the latest harassment of Filipino fishermen by the China Coast Guard.
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“We have contingency measures and long-term plans on the West Philippine Sea. However, for incident response, it is the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea particularly in the Bajo de Masinloc; it is a Coast Guard and BFAR area,” Teodoro said when asked about the DND’s next course of action after the incident.
“But that doesn’t say we do not condemn the act of China which it has no business doing in harassing Filipino fishermen,” he continued.
Scarborough Shoal is a traditional fishing ground that should be shared with neighboring countries such as China and Vietnam, according to a 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Beijing, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, rejected the international tribunal’s ruling, as its vessels harass Filipino fishermen trying to fish there.