The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and Department of Agriculture fought hard from 2021 to 2022 to implement a system that would track commercial fishing vessels at sea. It is a worldwide standard to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.
When all of this was happening in 2022, Cordoba awarded a P6.2-million contract to Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency to provide security services for the NTC. Vigilant used to be wholly owned by Calida and his family until they divested in 2019, when they were being scrutinized for conflict of interest, but his son Josef Calida remained to be the company’s vice president for legal, their 2022 General Information Sheet shows.
As soon as FAO 266 was passed in 2020, making implementation imminent, commercial fishing companies began preparing to fight the regulation in court. They claim the system violates their constitutional right to protect trade secrets. The Cordoba family owns 40% of Mercidar through Monica and two other members of the family, whom we have verified through family photos they uploaded on their social media accounts. Mercidar is a company also involved in a court case contesting small fishers’ preferential rights over municipal waters.
On June 30, 2021, Assistant Solicitor General Ellaine Rose Sanchez-Corro and Senior State Solicitor Melanie Pimentel told BFAR in a legal opinion that nothing less than a Supreme Court injunction could stop the implementation of the VMS. “This departs from the earlier opinion,” said Calida, who told the BFAR and NTC that “the writ of injunction is immediately executory and may not be stayed simply by appeal.” The appeal refers to a petition that, at the time, was already filed at the Supreme Court, challenging Judge Docena’s ruling.
This did not faze the fishing regulators because documents showed that on March 29, 2022, the Department of Agriculture secretary then, William Dar, issued a memorandum to BFAR and told the bureau to “continue the full implementation of the VMS to prevent, deter, and eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.”
Cordoba is now the chairperson of the COA. He was appointed by Marcos to replace Calida, who served there only briefly after his stint in the OSG.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)
Agriculture And Fisheries Bureau Of Fisheries And Aquatic Resources Department Of Agriculture Fisherfolk In The Philippines Philippine Agriculture Investigative Environment National News Newsbreak Philippine News
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