Philippine Supreme Court rules monitoring commercial fishing vessels is unconstitutional
The Philippine Supreme Court has struck down a regulation requiring commercial fishing vessels to continuously transmit their locations and submit electronic catch reports, a decision small-scale fishers say could make it harder to protect coastal grounds already strained by overfishing and competition from larger operators. The high court upheld a lower-court decision that invalidated Fisheries…
The Philippine Supreme Court has ruled that a regulation requiring commercial fishing vessels to continuously transmit their locations and submit electronic catch reports is unconstitutional. The decision, made on January 21, 2026, upholds a lower-court ruling that invalidated Fisheries Administrative Order No. 266 (FAO 266). This order mandated all Philippine-flagged commercial fishing vessels to install tracking systems and electronically report catches and other operational information.
The court's decision, announced publicly on August 3, 2026, leaves fishers concerned that without continuous tracking, authorities may find it more difficult to monitor commercial vessels entering municipal waters, which are primarily reserved for small-scale local fishers. Pablo Rosales, president of Pangisda Pilipinas, a national fisherfolk alliance, expressed worry that the lack of monitoring could exacerbate overfishing and competition.
Brief written by urgent.news from Mongabay's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
