Saturday, March 22, 2008 Editorial: Confronting the tuna problem
GENERAL Santos City Mayor Pedro B. Acharon Jr. admitted that the city's fishing industry is heading towards a bleak future, considering the "declining volume of tuna catches over the last two years."
This candid admission from no less than the chief executive of the city is distressing, if not dreadful. The tuna sector is the defining sector within the city's fishing industry, which could plummet abruptly the moment the tuna sector, unravels. Its collapse can have devastating domino effects on the local economy.
This claim has moorings on facts. The tuna industry is the main engine of the city's economic growth. It generates 75,000 direct jobs and accounts to 60 percent of the city's economy.
The tuna industry gave birth to another sector in the economy, the tuna value-added products (TVAPs) sector, now with 52 major players and accounts to P250 million worth of investments. Since it is wholly tuna-dependent, the death of the tuna industry will also spell the demise of TVAPs with 1,114 jobs at stake.
The city mayor also said the problem involving the tuna industry is serious, with a caveat: "even if the fishing industry will not accept it." Then, he proceeded by urging local entrepreneurs "to explore the possibilities of opening up new industries."
By saying this, is Mayor Acharon now abandoning the tuna industry and refocusing his efforts, instead, on the other sectors of the economy? No, not at all!
His support to the tuna industry remains relentless. But this should not prevent the city from venturing on and developing other industries. A mortal sin in governance is committed when the local economy is made dependent upon a single industry.
This becomes even more significant under the prevailing situation when the problems besetting the tuna industry are beyond the power of the city government to address. The spiraling prices of materials needed for the operation of a fishing business and the growing strength of the peso against the dollar that create havoc on the export-oriented tuna industry are reflective of national economic conditions and are, therefore, outside the sphere of influence of the city government.
The prevailing policy of the Indonesian government (fish caught in Indonesia is owned by Indonesia) and the problems arising from boundary disputes between Indonesia and the Philippines are bilateral questions that are beyond the singular control of the city government.
Moreover, the City Government cannot do a Don Quixote by forcing US President George W. Bush Jr. to sign the Kyoto protocol, which he twice vetoed, to effectively address global warming, which the city's fishing mogul, Marfin Tan, attributed for the dwindling volume of tuna production.
The city is currently journeying along steeply ascending economic spiral and it is now nearing the peak of the local economic pyramid.
We should not allow the city to backpedal into the economic gutters, simply because there is an undesirable twist in the fate of the local tuna industry.
