It is observed that the government decision was pursuant to a Supreme Court directive for certain state agencies to clean up and rehabilitate the polluted bay. In its report the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), represented by Director Malcolm I. Sarmiento, Jr., listed short-, medium- and long-term plans to comply with the court decision on Dec. 18, 2008, which upheld a lower court ruling to make the bay “fit for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of contact recreation.”
BFAR has told the court that the closure plan was presented during the National Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council meeting on July 22, with the view to regenerate the fish stocks in the area. It is told that the short-term plan (2009-2012) would entail the immediate arrest of unlicensed fishing vessels and fishing vessels involved in illegal operation/activities; strengthening of BFAR’s law enforcement initiatives by updating training modules for law enforcement agents such as Bantay Dagat (sea patrol); stopping all registration and licensing of new commercial vessels in the provinces of Cavite, Bulacan and Bataan, and the cities of Malabon and Navotas in Metro Manila.
The medium-term plan (2012-2015) would require further introduction of alternative livelihood and the development and strengthening of previously introduced livelihood programs; and seasonal closure of the bay from fishing activities. The long-term plan (2015 and beyond) would entail the total closure of the bay from all forms of fishing “should the need arise.”
