USSEC recently met with representatives from the Philippine government to discuss common water body management.  USSEC Southeast Asia Technical Director – Aquaculture Lukas Manomaitis, together with USSEC Philippines Technical Manager - Aquaculture Levy L. Manalac, met with local government units (LGUs) in the cities of San Pablo and Manila to discuss how LGUs approach the management, regulation and enforcement of common water bodies in the Laguna and Crater Lakes areas.
The consultants met with the FARMC for Sampalok Lake in San Pablo, a local organization of farmers, and the Sampalok Lake fish warden.  USSEC has an ongoing demonstration program on Sampalok Lake.  Mr. Manomaitis and Mr. Manalac also met with the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) which oversees Laguna Lake and all seven Crater Lakes including Sampalok.
USSEC discovered through a recent USSEC Southeast Asia Aquaculture Market and Investment Report and the USB-funded Common Water Body Modeling project that the Philippine national aquaculture organization, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), has little power to set or enforce rules in that country.  The LGUs have the greatest power to affect common water bodies, so the purpose of this visit was to begin the process of working with an LGU that oversees a lake where USSEC has a tilapia demonstration project.  The USSEC team discovered that LGUs indeed have great influence over these types of water bodies, but that the situation is quite complicated, so they will continue to seek information and investigate better approaches.  The USSEC team will communicate their findings to the USB Common Water project for more guidance.