Puerto Princesa City, Philippines – Reef fish such as the much sought-after Red Grouper locally known as “Suno” are considered luxury food items. These reef fish are found in restaurants in big cities like Metro Manila. But most of the reef fish in our country are shipped to either Hong Kong, China, or other Asian countries. Hong Kong’s high-end restaurants keep reef fish alive in aquariums. Diners, mostly wealthy, pick them, and fish are scooped out, gutted, and cooked.
Trading live reef fish is one of the lucrative industries in Palawan, being an island province consisting of a thousand other islands and islets. Live reef fish traders in Palawan like Sabino Nonoy Camacho earn P2,500 ($44.6) for every kilo of Suno that they sell. In a year, they can potentially earn P2.6 million ($46,407). In Hong Kong the fish catch fetches as much as $300 per kilo which is six-fold to seven-folds compared to its price in Palawan. The price, however, depends on taste, texture, availability and the time of year. Prices normally spike when demand peaks. For Suno, 500 grams to 1 kilogram is the preferred trade size.
Live fish traders in Palawan shipped their live fishery products to Manila before they are exported to Hong Kong and China, with exceptions in Puerto Princesa where there is an existing prohibition for trading and shipment of live reef fish.
Red Grouper or Suno is regulated under the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) Administrative Order No. 5 which aims to address its decreasing stocks by imposing size restrictions and seasonal control. Aside from Suno, two other species are also regulated. It was adopted to alleviate Palawan’s diminishing catch of the three reef fish species.
The PCSD was established in 1992 by the Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP) for Palawan Act also known as Republic Act 7611. The SEP Law sets out the framework in terms of conservation and development planning and policy formulation designed for Palawan to ensure that its fragile environment is protected, conserved, utilized and managed effectively.
Its AO intends to provide for a system that will ensure the sustainability of reef-fish-for-food industry in Palawan by setting up a comprehensive regulatory mechanism consistent with the provisions of Republic Act No. 9147 also known as Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act. The policy likewise aims to regulate the catching, trade, transport and export of these reef-fish-for-food and regulate resource extraction to a sustainable level.
Catching and shipping live reef fish is banned from March 1 to May 31 every year in Palawan. But since fisherfolks petitioned for the lifting of the closed fishing season, the provincial government of Palawan lifted the closed fishing season in 23 component municipalities, except for Puerto Princesa.
During the closed fishing season, it is prohibited to catch and trade reef fish such as leopard coral trout or Red Grouper (Suno), estuarine or green grouper (Loba), and tiger or brown marbled grouper (Lapung baboy).
But the planned closed fishing season implementation was met with opposition from fisherfolks. Sabino Camacho and other fish traders and fisherfolk trooped to the City Hall of Puerto Princesa and bring their concerns to the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s Committee on Food, Agriculture and Fisheries chaired by City Councilor Elgin Robert Damasco.
Camacho claimed that the closed fishing season would affect their livelihood.
During the meeting, PCSD Project Development Officer IV Ma. Christina Rodriquez defended the move emphasizing the importance of the closed fishing season to protect reef fish species and for them and other government agencies and institutions to gather data and conduct studies during the period, to determine if closed seasons are effective in increasing fish population.
On February 29, 2024, a day before the start of the closed fishing season, the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (City ENRO) headed by Atty. Carlo Gomez affirmed their Office’s stand consistent with the objectives and intentions of Closed Season that prohibited fish species, whether live or lifeless, should be totally banned from entering Puerto Princesa City.
“Transportation of live and dead fish from other municipalities outside of Puerto Princesa City is also covered and provides a window for circumvention of the adopted policy and will possibly defeat the purpose, especially by those unscrupulous individuals,” he explained. The implementation of the policy should not provide an exemption that will undermine the objective of the policy,” said Atty. Gomez.