Abstract:
Fisheries has always been an underdeveloped sector of our
country. Although it comprises the largest part of the national territory
and boasts a bounty of resources, the government has always been
insincere in managing, protecting, preserving, conserving, maintaining
and developing the fisheries. They wanted to disprove this fact by
compiling all laws on fisheries and legislating them into what we now
have as the Fisheries Code of 1998 (RA 8550).
With the passing of this new law, the masses, especially the
municipal fisherfolk, hoped that this would be the start of a new and
bountiful life in fishing. But, is the passing of a new fishery law be
enough to solve the country’s problem on fisheries?
This study focuses on the case of the municipality of Mabini in
the province of Batangas. Although the problems in this municipality
are not as much as those municipalities and cities near the country’
major fishing bays, the researcher still found striking similarities in the
problems of fisheries and the way the local and national government
implements the Fisheries Code.
The researcher found out that the municipal fisherfolk are
underdeveloped, that they are not helped much by the government,
that the local government have no concrete programs and actions to
help the local fisherfolk, and that the Code itself is an insufficient tool
to help the fishermen and manage the fisheries in general.
