Despite the Fisheries Code of 1998 that was meant to empower them, fishermen are still trapped in the net of extreme poverty, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas said on the 19th anniversary of the law. Pamalakaya held a protest at Mendiola, Manila on Friday with hundreds of fishermen from different provinces in Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon expressing their outrage at the Fisheries Code’s failure to uplift their impoverished lives. Government data through the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that highest poverty incidence manifests in the fishing sector, with 39.2-percent poverty rate or two out of five fisherfolk strive with P52 and below per day.

Fishers still gaffed by poverty-group. (2017, February 25). Manila Standard, p. A3.