Filed
First Reading
Referred to thw Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy and Committee on Finance, Budget and ManagementNow
Parliament Bill No. 180
Second readingAn Act Adopting an Integrated Coastal Management Policy in the Bangsamoro Region, Establishing Mechanisms and Providing Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes
Filed
First Reading
Referred to thw Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy and Committee on Finance, Budget and ManagementNow
Under committee study or floor debate. Amendments are still possible, and this is the stage where public input carries the most weight.
What this measure does
The Bangsamoro Integrated Coastal Management Act of 2023 makes integrated coastal management the region’s official policy framework for its coasts and seas, and builds a council to run it.
Section 3 is the substance: integrated coastal management and related approaches, coastal resource management among them, become the regional management policy framework for the sustainable development of the region’s coastal and marine environment — aimed at food security, sustainable livelihood, poverty alleviation and reduced vulnerability to natural hazards, while preserving ecological integrity. The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Energy is then to issue guidelines for coastal zoning: delineating coastal areas, identifying land uses, and regulating activity in the coastal zone.
The Integrated Coastal Management Council is chaired by the MENRE Minister and seats the Ministers of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform and of Trade, Investments and Tourism, the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government, the Directors-General for Environment and Natural Resources and for Fisheries, two representatives of accredited civil society organizations, and representatives from coastal communities in every province.
The Council oversees implementation, develops and implements a Coastal Management Plan, provides measures to protect mangroves, coral reefs and seagrasses, coordinates with law enforcement against destructive fishing and pollution, works with the trade ministry on ecotourism and sustainable fisheries, and works with the interior ministry to bring local governments and coastal communities into the process through consultations, capacity building and awareness work.
Costs are charged against MENRE’s existing budget and thereafter to the annual appropriations act. The Act would take effect 15 days after publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the region.
Why it was proposed
The explanatory note is unusually specific for a framework bill. BARMM holds mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs that carry ecological, economic and cultural weight; fisheries and aquaculture are the primary income for many communities and depend directly on the health of those systems; and the coast is also the region’s transport network. Against that it sets overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change through sea level rise and warming water — and adds that conflict in coastal areas compounds the degradation. The remedy it proposes is regulation of fishing practice, pollution reduction, marine protected areas, and education.
Who it affects
- Coastal and fishing communities across the region, who would gain named representation on the Council — one or more from every province — and whose fishing practices the framework is meant to regulate.
- The island provinces above all, where the coast is not a margin but the entire economy.
- Local government units with coastal jurisdiction, brought into the process through MILG.
- Accredited civil society organizations, given two seats.
- Operators in ecotourism, aquaculture and commercial fishing, whose activities the coastal zoning guidelines would regulate.
Who would implement it
- Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Energy (MENRE), which chairs the Council and issues the coastal zoning guidelines
- Integrated Coastal Management Council (ICMC)
- Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Agrarian Reform, and Ministry of Trade, Investments and Tourism
- Ministry of the Interior and Local Government, for local government and community participation
- Directors-General for Environment and Natural Resources and for Fisheries
- Law enforcement agencies, with which the Council is to coordinate rather than direct
Funding
Carries an appropriation. No sum is stated and no new money is created. The amount necessary is charged against MENRE’s current budget and thereafter included in the annual appropriations act — which means, in the first year, the Council and the Coastal Management Plan are funded by MENRE finding room for them inside a budget already committed.
What changes if it becomes law
- Integrated coastal management becomes the region’s stated policy framework rather than a project approach.
- MENRE must issue coastal zoning guidelines delineating coastal areas and regulating activity within them.
- A standing Council exists with ministers, directors-general, civil society and coastal community representation.
- A Coastal Management Plan is required, developed and implemented by the Council.
- Mangroves, coral reefs and seagrasses acquire a named body responsible for measures to protect them.
- Coastal communities gain seats at the table where their fisheries are regulated.
Raised during deliberations
No published record of the debate on this measure. Parliament’s journals cover sittings up to March 2023 only, and no committee report on it has been published.
What to notice
This is a coordination bill, and reading it as anything stronger would misread it. The Council oversees, develops, provides measures and coordinates; it does not license, penalise or enforce. There are no penalties anywhere in the text. Enforcement against destructive fishing stays with the law enforcement agencies the Council coordinates with, and the operative regulatory instrument — the coastal zoning guidelines — is MENRE’s to write after the fact. What the bill actually delivers on the day it takes effect is a policy declaration, a council, and an obligation to produce a plan.
The funding clause is the constraint that matters. Charging a new regional framework to a ministry’s current budget, with no additional appropriation in the first year, is how coordination bodies end up meeting rarely and producing plans slowly.
One structural gap is worth flagging because it will be the first thing the Council fights about. The membership includes two civil society representatives and "representatives from coastal communities in every province" — unnumbered — and Section 5 leaves the mechanism for selecting both to the Council’s own first regular meeting. So the size of the Council and the question of who speaks for a coastal community are settled by the Council itself, after it has already been convened by the ministers and directors-general who are on it by office.
The bill is among the furthest advanced in this batch, sitting at Second Reading since October 2025.
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