As part of a national campaign to rehabilitate fish sources across the country, the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources launched on June 19, 2017 the Balik Sigla sa Lawa at Ilog (BASIL) project.

The project is the Department of Agriculture’s counter-strategy, which comes after the directive of President Duterte to dismantle fish cages in Laguna Lake.

“We will make food and livelihood available for everybody to address poverty,” Pinol said. 

BASIL is a five-year program that applies scientific approach to explore the natural productivity of lakes and reservoirs where the available natural food and production capacity are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.

The initiative’s development plan includes social preparation and capacity building, resource profiling, and habitat restoration. DA and BFAR will also provide livelihood assistance package to farmer beneficiaries and their families.

Under the project, 210 million (M) fingerlings will be distributed in seven (7) major lakes and six (6) river basins across the country before the end of the Duterte administration.

“For this year alone, our target is to seed to about 26M fingerlings around the country,” Piñol said.

The seven major lakes are Laguna Lake, Taal Lake, Lanao Lake, Naujan Lake, Lake Sebu, Lake Mainit and Buluan Lake. While, the six river basins to be seeded are Cagayan river basins, Bicol river basins, Abra river system, Pampanga river basin, Agusan river basin, and Mindanao river basin.

At the BASIL launch, Piñol together with Senate Committee for Agriculture Chair Senator Cynthia Villar dispersed 5M fingerlings of indigenous and non-invasive fish species including tilapia, ulang, milkfish, ayungin. (Kristel Merle/DA-AFID)