In a statement, the fishers’ group said the regulation is “unjust and anti-fisherfolk” as it would take away the livelihood of around 15, 000 fisherfolks and coastal residents in the affected towns who directly depend on Manila Bay by culturing mussels and oysters. Most of them are employed in aquaculture farms who are engaged in managing, maintaining, and harvesting of cultured shellfish in fish pen structures.
PAMALAKAYA also chided the DENR for reproaching the bamboo poles washed into the shores over the recent monsoon rains, to justify the dismantling order.
“Why make a fuss on the bamboo poles washed along the shore when in the first place, these are not pollutants that can cause damage to the marine ecosystem unlike plastic and other solid wastes? It’s a common sense that disposed bamboos will naturally submerge in water and eventually decompose,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.
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