By Rey Anthony Chiu | 11:15 PM November 12, 2022
Again, considering that managing its coastal and marine resources is best implemented by a tightly knit network of local government units, Bohol Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado reconstitutes the coastal protection and monitoring program through its law award winning Bohol Coastal law Enforcement Council (CLEC) and provides mechanisms and implementing funds.
Through Executive Order No 47, which he signed October 24, 2022, the governor has also made more relevant the initial Memorandum of Agreement signed in 2001, between and among the Provincial Government, municipal and city local governments, national government agencies and non-government organizations setting up the Bohol CLEC.
CLEC is the brilliant measure which Bohol adopted in 2001, when it met tough issues in the implementation of the Fisheries Code of the Philippines through Republic Act 7160.
As the Fisheries Code gets implemented, heavily outnumbered marine law enforcement agencies play cat and mouse with poachers, illegal fishers and violators of the law, while marginal fishers end up with nothing to barely subsistence catch, endangering the regions resource management.
With Section 3 (g) in relation to 3(i) of the Local Government Code of 1991 which mandates the capabilities of LGUs especially municipalities and barangays by providing them opportunities to participate actively in the implementation of national programs and projects, by sharing in the responsibility of management and maintenance of the ecological balance, Bohol adopted a multi-sectoral CLEC, which plugged marine law implementation loopholes.