Supreme Court Ruling: A Death Blow to Small-Scale Fishers
Oceana statement on the SC decision striking down Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 266
Press Release Date: July 31, 2026
ATTRIBUTION: Von Hernandez, Oceana Vice President
Inilibing ng Korte Suprema ang mga maliliit na mangingisda at ng kanilang mga pamilya sa mas malalim na hukay ng gutom at kahirapan. Ngayong ipinawalang-bisa ng Korte ang Fisheries Administrative 0rder (FAO) 266, tinatanggal nila sa karagatan ang pinakamabisang paraan para makita kung iligal bang pumapasok sa loob ng 15-kilometer municipal waters ang mga barkong pang-komersyal. Dahil dito, mabubulag na ang mga ahensyang nagpapatupad ng batas, at walang habas nang pwedeng ubusin ng mga komersyal na barko ang laman ng ating karagatan.
FAO 266 requires all commercial vessels to carry vessel monitoring devices and comply with electronic reporting. This was our government’s way of seeing who fishes where. In a country where enforcement capacity is severely challenged and limited, the installation of vessel monitoring systems was meant to be a cost-effective tool to detect and deter commercial incursions in the 15-kilometer municipal water zone reserved for artisanal fishers, and in marine protected areas that should be off-limits to commercial and destructive fishing. With the Supreme Court decision striking down FAO 266, commercial vessels can now operate largely unseen and with impunity.
For years we have been warning the government that Philippine fisheries is in steep and steady decline. Filipino fishers have been catching 45 million kilos less every year for the last thirteen years. 88 percent of assessed fish stocks are overfished. This is because Philippine seas have not been given a chance to recover from massive extraction. As a result, more than 300,000 fisher families are below the poverty line, with more than 90,000 of them unable to put food on the table.
Oceana has been calling for government action prioritizing the recovery of these coral reefs and spawning grounds—much of which are found within the 15-kilometer municipal waters. By asking to remove the monitoring devices that could deter commercial fishing vessels from illegally entering the 15 kilometers, the Supreme Court ruling obliterates what little protection municipal waters have left against further damage and decline.
At our State of the Fisherfolk Address last Tuesday, we asked the government one question: Pangakong Kinse — para sa mangingisda, o para sa negosyante? Are the 15-kilometer municipal waters legally reserved for municipal fisherfolk still for the municipal fisherfolk, or has the government now offered it up to commercial interest? Two days later, it is as if the answer came from the Supreme Court. We say it plainly now: this is a death sentence for municipal fishing and small-scale fishers.
Let us be clear about who did this: the commercial fishing corporations who filed this case — Royale Fishing Corporation, Bonanza Fishing and Market Resources, and RBL Fishing Corporation. It is big fishing interest that wins, to the demise of the poorest fisherfolk who will now have to share their fishing ground with more massive commercial fishing vessels.
The permits issued by the government to commercial fishers give them access to our fish stocks, a public asset. That permit should reasonably require transparency in return, not a right to opacity about where you exercise that privilege. The government’s power to permit must be matched by equal power to protect the greater public from irreparable harm and damage.
We should also be alarmed as a nation because of what it means for our country’s seafood industry. Weeks ago, the United States closed its market to Philippine blue swimming crab, a fifty-million-dollar industry, because the country could not adequately document and monitor how that fishery operates. Hundreds of workers were laid off within days. FAO 266 was exactly the kind of monitoring and traceability infrastructure that keeps markets open. Killing it drags us backward, toward the paper and guesswork global buyers no longer accept; it puts our hard-won EU green-card standing back in jeopardy and it throws away years of public investment already built and paid for.
Moreover, this was not even a fight the fisherfolk were allowed to properly join. In his dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen lamented that the fisherfolk who requested to intervene and subsequently rejected were ”grievously deprived of the opportunity to… be heard on the merits of this case.” Leonen argued that “the court’s failure to look beyond the arguments of the original parties is a denial of equal access to justice, one that must never be repeated.”
We hope that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) will waste no time in appealing this decision. A government that cannot see cannot enforce its laws, and a government that will not enforce its rules has abandoned the fisherfolk it swore to protect.
To Congress and local governments: Defend our oceans and uphold the rights of our artisanal fishers and coastal communities. Push for greater transparency in our fisheries and strengthen enforcement against illegal and destructive practices. Protections for small fishers and municipal waters must be made explicit, mandatory, and beyond the reach of the next corporate lawsuit. What one ruling can strike down, another law can make permanent. (END)
Oceana is the largest international organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Our mission is to rebuild abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies that stop overfishing, protect habitats and threatened species, curb oil and plastic pollution, and increase transparency at sea. With more than 350 victories, Oceana’s campaigns are delivering results – for the oceans, for coastal communities, and for the planet. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy, climate-smart seafood meal every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Join us at Oceana.org.
For More Information:
Joyce Sierra, Communications Manager, Oceana
Mobile: 09178214430 E-mail: jsierra@oceana.org
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