Villar: Why are fishermen left out in subsidy program?

Senate President Manny Villar today took up the cudgels for 1.6 million fishermen "who seemed to have disappeared in the government's radar of who it wants to assist against high oil prices."

In the wake of government's announcement that farmers will be given a P1,500 subsidy each , Villar said the program is "eerily silent if fishermen will be included."

Villar, also Nacionalista Party president, lamented that while "all kinds of public transport - from jeepneys, tricycles, and even airlines - have received some form of help ranging from gas discounts to tax breaks to combat fuel price spikes, the fisherman is out there in the seas alone."

But the truth is fishermen are the first to reel from high gas prices as up to 80 percent of what they earn from their dwindling catch goes to fuel, he said.

Villar , son of a shrimp vendor from Bataan, said "unknown to many, fishermen are first to feel the impact of gas price increases because in catching fish they don't swim out to sea but use motorized bancas."

"The major ingredient in catching fish is fuel. You need fuel to power boats, to make ice that will preserve the fish, and to run the vehicles that will bring the catch to market," he said.

Villar said a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources research showed that the share of gas and oil to the total fishing expense of a coastal fisherman ranges from 31 percent, for those who use shrimp gillnet, to a high 80 percent of "drift, hook and line" fisherman.

Close to 90 percent of a shrimp trawl's expense goes to diesel while in tuna long-line fishing 70 percent of expenses goes to the fuel bill , Villar said.

"Because fishing is an oil-reliant industry, half of the retail price of galunggong, dilis, tulingan, matangbaka, alumahan, tambakol, bisugo represents fuel expenses," he added.

The Senate president said a diesel subsidy scheme for fishermen should be put in place to prevent prices of fish from shooting up and fishermen from getting poorer.

"Next to rice, it is fish that Filipinos eat most," he said.

Villar said government should now designate "fishermen lanes" in gas stations where "registered fishermen" can queue up for discounted diesel. He said a gas subsidy for fishermen is justified because what the fisheries sector produced in value was bigger than the output of all rice farmers.