Cardinal David, Christian Monsod ask SC to block big fisher from fishing in town waters

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, 1987 Constitution framer Christian Monsod, and the Environmental Legal Assistance Center say this case 'has thrown the constitutional status of municipal fisheries regulations across the country into disarray and stability'

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rapplerAds.displayAd( "mobile-middle-1" );MANILA, Philippines – 1987 Constitution framer Christian Monsod, Bishop Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David, and nongovernment organization Environmental Legal Assistance Center asked the Supreme Court on Thursday, April 24, to reverse a Malabon Regional Trial Court (RTC) decision permitting a commercial fisher within municipal waters.In their petition for certiorari, the petitioners said this case “[has] thrown the constitutional status of municipal fisheries regulations across the country into disarray and stability.

”In 2023, Judge Zaldy Docena of the Malabon RTC granted Mercidar Fishing Corporation’s petition to fish within the 15-kilometer municipal water zone.The RTC decision declared unconstitutional provisions in the Fisheries Code pertaining to small fishers’ preferential use of town waters and local governments’ jurisdiction over the zone.Then, in 2024, the High Court’s First Division affirmed the RTC decision because the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) had failed to file the necessary motion for reconsideration in time.

Thursday’s petitioners said Docena “erased wholesale all constitutional and statutory protections over municipal waters.”They claimed that the DA, BFAR, and the Office of the Solicitor General failed public trust for “sluggish defense” and “gross negligence.”Moreover, the petitioners said Mercidar failed to implead “indispensable parties” such as Congress, local governments that have municipal waters, and fisheries management councils when it petitioned with the Malabon RTC in 2023.

This rendered the judgment void, they said.“Philippine waters, now lawless, are at this very moment being pillaged by commercial fishing corporations with no legal or constitutional impediment,” the petition read.Respondents to the petition are the DA, BFAR, Office of the Solicitor General, Docena, and Mercidar.

– Rappler.com.