According to BFAR rebuilding fishing industry in central Philippines is the top priority. BFAR has allotted a bigger portion of its proposed budget for the rehabilitation of the fishery sector in the region to the aquaculture industry. BFAR regional director Drusila Esther Bayate told that their agency’s rehabilitation plan will focus on the recovery of aquaculture and captured fishery sectors to restore the production areas that were affected by typhoon Frank as soon as possible.
Bayate also informed that the proposal has P159 million allotments to aquaculture and P1.1 million to the captured fisheries. She told that BFAR will prioritize projects with short gestation period, seaweed projects and distribution of fingerlings for the aquaculture. She also said that for the captured fisheries, the organization want to replace the lost or damaged fishing gears as soon as they can.
Bayate also explained that owners of commercial fishing boats that were damaged by the typhoon are encouraged to access the interest-free loan of the Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF). She added that the damages in Panay and Negros Island have reached P3.3 billion. In Negros Occidental alone, some 24 fishing vessels engaged in commercial fishing have capsized or still missing while some municipal fisherfolks have lost their gears.
According to Bayate the budget for the rehabilitation will be sourced out from the P15-billion supplemental budget which was approved on first reading at the House of Congress.
