June 19, 2026
MANILA – Over 100,000 fisherfolk are affected by the monsoon, according to activist fishers’ group PAMALAKAYA National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organisations in the Philippines.
The monsoon, locally known as “Habagat,” has been forcing thousands of fisherfolk across the country to halt fishing activities due to rough seas.
PAMALAKAYA, on its initial monitoring, recorded the number of fisherfolk individuals affected by the monsoon in the following provinces: 47,000 in Batangas, 27,000 in Zambales, and 30,000 in Cavite.
“The monsoon season isn’t new; but it is more challenging this year because the fisherfolk have also just been bracing for the effects of the rising oil prices due to the Gulf conflict. Now, there’s another crisis again,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson, told the Asia News Network.
According to the organization, the small boats of fisherfolk have remained on the shore due to large waves for almost two weeks, which means no income for small-scale fisherfolk during that fortnight.
In Batangas, a province South of Manila, the provincial chapter of PAMALAKAYA said that small fisherfolk in Balayan Bay are already securing their boats from huge waves.
“It would be four months again of having to deal with the effects of the monsoon, along with a lack of livelihood. There is little support from the local government when we experience this calamity every year,” Jean Viana, a member of PAMALAKAYA’s Haligi ng Batanguenong Anakdagat (HABAGAT), said in a separate statement.
In another Pamalakaya community in Zambales, a province located in Central Luzon,
a small fishing boat carrying two fishermen in the town of San Antonio capsized after being battered by successive waves, ending their fishing trip.
“The fisherfolk were about to go to their fishing grounds, but the boat capsized, and the wave washed away their fishing gears. This is the concrete effect of the monsoon on small fishers,” said Hilda Reyes, president of the San Miguel Fish Vendors, Inc. in San Antonio, Zambales.
PAMALAKAYA urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to “immediately mobilize” its calamity assistance fund to provide economic relief to small fisherfolk reeling from the impacts of Habagat.
“The government’s inadequate support is what makes natural calamities worse for vulnerable sectors like fishermen. It is just proper to demand urgent support from government agencies using funds allocated for such calamities,” Hicap concluded.