The Pamalakaya has planed strike in the first week of August against what they said were the unstoppable increases in the prices of petroleum products. They urged the commercial fisheries to support them by joining in the strike. According to the Pamalakaya the country’s backward fishing industry was suffering further from weekly hikes in the prices of gasoline and other petroleum products.
Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a statement that they have to come up with a very strong position against this across-the-country exploitation of the oil cartel and the national government in the name of national interest and people’s clamor for self-fish sufficiency and fish security.
Hicap also said that the group has 80,000 small fishermen-members in 43 provinces nationwide, and commercial fishing operators have a common cause: to fight and stop the endless hikes in the prices of petroleum products. But the commercial fishing operators in Quezon have expressed reservation over their plan. Commenting on that Hicap said that the commercial fishermen are Malacañang would cancel their permits and bar their fishing vessels if they join the protest.
As the increasing fuel prices spark waves of protests all over the world Pamalakaya, citing their own study, said fishermen-owners of 177,627 motorized small fishing boats across the nation who each employs two to three small fishermen could no longer bear the brunt of rising prices of petroleum products.
