MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Malabon Regional Trial Court allowing Mercidar Fishing Corporation to fish within municipal waters, an area usually designated for small fisherfolk.

In December 2023, Malabon RTC Judge Zaldy Docena allowed Mercidar to operate within the 15-kilometer municipal waters except in shallow waters (less than 7 fathoms deep).

In a resolution dated August 19, 2024, the High Court’s First Division denied the the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Department of Agriculture’s petition for certiorari assailing the RTC’s decision. Certiorari is a legal remedy used to review another court’s decision for grave abuse of discretion. 

The SC noted that there was no appeal “filed of the December 11, 2023 Decision of the RTC within the 15-reglementary period, which led to the judgment becoming final and executory.”

In other words, the DA and BFAR failed to file the necessary motion for reconsideration in time, paving the way for the lower court’s decision to become immediately final.

Aside from allowing Mercidar to fish within the 15-kilometer zone, the RTC decision found certain provisions of the Fisheries Code unconstitutional. It also prohibited authorities like the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Coast Guard from enforcing the 15-kilometer limit in so far as Mercidar is concerned.

The SC also found that the petition per se lacked legal basis and only alluded to purely policy considerations when it said allowing commercial operators within municipal waters could “lead to faster collapse of fish stocks and irreversible damage to habitats.”

The Philippines’ Fisheries Code gives small fisherfolk preferential rights to fish 15 kilometers from shore.

A two-part Rappler investigation showed that Mercidar is partly owned by Monica Elena Cordoba, the wife of former National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) chief and now Commission on Audit Chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba.  

Under Cordoba, the NTC did not issue service identity numbers needed for the system that tracks commercial vessels at sea.

– Rappler.com