“From the Kalayaan Islands, 20 percent of the country’s marine fish production is harvested.”
by Ducky Paredes
Malcolm I. Sarmiento, director of the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Natural Resources (DA-BFAR) says that, if we do not beat the deadline in the United Nations Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf (UNCLOS), we will lose our extended continental shelf (ECS).
If the country misses this deadline, 15 months from now, the part the Philippines would have claimed becomes part of the International Seabed Area called “Common Heritage of Mankind.”
For Sarmiento, the importance of these areas in the South China Sea is that they are very rich in both living and non-living resources.
“It is a highly productive body of water in fisheries and other marine living resources… relatively shallow depths and (there is an) influx of numerous large continental rivers. Habitats include mangrove forests, seagrass beds, coral reefs, and soft bottom communities all of which may host highly productive ecosystems,” notes the BFAR.
This is the “most biologically diverse region” on earth. Many reefs and islets here protect flora and fauna including endangered species and is a source of fish and invertebrates larval supply.
The SCS is fourth largest of 19 fishing zones in the world according to total annual marine production. This is at fish harvest of eight million metric tons live weight of marine fish or 10 percent of total world catch and 23 percent of Asian harvest. It is also world’s fifth largest shrimp producer.
The SCS is host to the Spratlys Islands which is the biggest of the four archipelagoes in the SCS, taking up 800,000 square kilometers or 38 percent of SCS.
According to the BFAR, “the (Spratlys) sea provide 25 percent of the protein needs for 500 million people and 80 percent of Philippine diet. Some scientists believe that the region’s tunas, mackerels, scads, and coral reef fishes are replaced from the Spratlys area being a spawning ground.”
From the Kalayaan Islands, 20 percent of the country’s marine fish production is harvested.
Our politicians, of course, are willing to give this up on the belief that if we allow these islands to become part of the “common heritage of mankind,” we will avoid future confrontations with China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Perhaps, by letting go of what is already considered ours, we will be creating a greater mess in the area. Obviously, our neighbors will not so easily give up even just the sharing arrangements that the area’s becoming “common heritage” would imply.
With the Philippines giving up what is now considered at least part of our claimed territory, we would be giving this up for grabs. How will that be better than insisting that what has always been ours will remain ours?
If the area is that important, of course, there is reason to quarrel over the area, Giving it up without a fight makes the Philippines the wimp of the South China Seas and actually complicates matters for everyone else. Why give up something that one already possesses?
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If we want an Olympic gold, there must be a Filipino with enough native talent to do the following: win his event in the Southeast Asian Games, after which he will go into rigorous training, concentrating on his sport, thoroughly focused on improving his time or on the standards by which the sport is judged. Thus, he would go into training and building up his body to be able to do better.
Then, at the Asian Games, he should at least be a medalist and his form should be such that with it, he should have placed in the top five of the Beijing Olympics. He then goes into even more intensive training, improving still on his performance and, more important, still totally committed to winning one for his country.
Then, perhaps, we have an outside chance of winning something in the next Olympics four years from now.
There is really no point to continue sending athletes to these games who do not stand any chances of getting into the record books. To congratulate ourselves that some of our athletes improved on their own personal or national records in the Olympic games just past is fooling ourselves. Of course, those records are easily beatable since they are so far off from the world record in whatever event we are looking at.
Those personal and national records will fall to the wayside as soon as a true world beater comes forth in this country. Shaving seconds or inches or adding ounces to these non-competitive records is actually meaningless as far a judging our athletes by the world standard goes.
Sure, send officials to observe the Olympics. Let them march in the opening ceremony with not one world-class athlete in their ranks. This will maybe shame them into putting more of our sports resources on the athletes than on themselves, Perhaps, too, then, they will realize that there is really too much politics in sports.
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The Manila-Bicol Golfers Association will hold its most important tournament of the year on Friday, August 28, 2008 at the Navy Golf Course. The proceeds of this tournament will go towards civic and religious charities in Naga City which hosts the Penafrancia Festival, the grandest religious feast in honor of the Virgin Mother in the Bicol Region.
This golfers’ association is composed mostly of Bicolanos with a smattering of their friends and those who have lived and worked in the Bicol Region. The association holds monthly tournaments usually on the last Sunday of the month.
This is a cause worth supporting and its awards ceremonies is always something to look forward to.
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The Federation of Philippine Amateur Senior Golfers, Inc. will hold a fun tournament at Capitol Golf and Country Club on Friday, August 28, 2008. Tee-off will be from 6:00 to 8:00 in the morning, The FPASGI holds two kinds of tournaments – the San Miguel Sugar-Free Coffee Senior Tour and the fun tournaments.
While only members play in the SMC tournament, guests of FPASGI members are allowed to play in the fun tournaments.
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hvp 08.18.08)
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