Philippine Waters Unwatched? SC Voids Vessel Tracking Rule, Raising Enforcement Concerns

The Supreme Court has struck down a specific government system for electronically monitoring commercial fishing vessels, but this decision does not erase the broader requirement for vessel monitoring under the Fisheries Code. This distinction is now at the center of a debate over what happens next. For commercial fishing operators, the ruling removes a regulation the Supreme Court found overly intrusive and unsupported by sufficient legal and scientific basis. For the government, fisherfolk groups, and fisheries advocates, however, the decision raises a different question: How can authorities enforce fishing restrictions and protect municipal waters if they cannot continuously see where commercial vessels are operating? The Fisheries Code continues to prohibit commercial fishing in municipal waters except in cases allowed by law. It also gives municipal and city governments jurisdiction over municipal waters and responsibility for their management, conservation, development, and protection. Therefore, the ruling does not grant commercial vessels a new license to enter or fish in municipal waters. However, the ruling changes the specific monitoring mechanism the government had put in place through FAO No. 266. The Supreme Court voided FAO No. 266, the regulation implementing the VMM and ERS requirements, but it did not repeal the Fisheries Code itself. The amended Fisheries Code continues to prohibit commercial fishing vessels, except in specified cases, from fishing in municipal waters. Enforcement depends on the government having ways to determine where vessels are operating and what they are doing. Oceana argues that real-time Vessel Monitoring (VMM) provides enforcement agencies with timely vessel-location data that can help them monitor compliance with fishing restrictions, unlike manual reporting, which it said is more vulnerable to manipulation. "Without VMM, it will be harder for agencies to detect if commercial fishing vessels intrude into restricted areas like MPAs, municipal waters, and closed fishing areas because manual reporting can easily be manipulated," said Oceana Vice President Von Hernandez. Small-scale fisher Pablo Rosales echoes this concern. He challenges the argument that commercial fishing operations are entitled to trade-secret protection, asking, "What gave them the right to declare as trade secret their fishing operation and when our waters and the resources extracted from these are public good and thus be managed by the state?" The Supreme Court focused on the evidence presented to it about the effectiveness of VMS compared with existing reporting mechanisms. Oceana, however, disputes that characterization, arguing that VMM is different from manual reporting because electronic data can arrive in real time, are much harder to fake, and can provide vessel tracks. Assistant Professor Joshua Regalado of the University of the Philippines Visayas' Institute of Fisheries Policy and Development Studies also notes that a functioning vessel monitoring system is a key part of effective fisheries management, allowing authorities to assess compliance with fishery laws and regulations. Source: Inquirer NewsInfo