SASMUAN town in Pampanga ranked second in the list of top performers in the 2021 Fisheries Compliance Audit (FishCa) among local government units in Central Luzon.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said that Sasmuan is second to Bataan, which is this year’s top performer for Central Luzon.

The third top performer is the coastal town of Samal, also in Bataan province.

The FishCA is a monitoring tool used by the DILG since 2018 to assess the level of compliance of local government units (LGUs) with the provisions of the Fisheries Code.

It focuses on the enabling institutional mechanisms that will allow LGUs to perform their functions better in the management of municipal waters.

According to the Philippine Fisheries Code, “municipal waters” include not only streams, lakes, inland bodies of water and tidal waters within the municipality that are not included within the protected areas as defined under Republic Act (RA) 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act.

Among key findings yielded by the audit is that the towns are able to register fisherfolk, cooperatives, non-government organizations, vessels, and gears, and establish fish landing sites and ice plants, provide technical support to local fishers and create a Municipal Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Council.