A gateway to both Samar and Leyte islands, the San Juanico Bridge is not just a pride and symbol of the Eastern Visayas Region, it also serves as a strategic entry and exit point of goods and other major commodities going to and from the region.

Hence, the bridge has been a sentinel that has continually safeguarded the lives of its people, a fact that was especially manifested during the recent pandemic.

Predicating on this critical location of the San Juanico Bridge, BFAR8 in partnership with PNP8 will be establishing a Permanent Checkpoint at the foot of the said bridge portioning the Leyte side to be commenced on the last week of April 2023. At present, however, an existing fisheries checkpoint is being operated by PNP8 for the purposes of checking the local transport permits (LTP) and/or auxiliary invoices of local and national importers to further examine the traceability of such products.

Food safety being the top concern of the Bureau, the said checkpoint will be manned, mainly, by Fisheries Quarantine Officers of BFAR8 and personnel from PNP8, on a 24/7 basis to ensure that fishery commodities entering Leyte and going to all the other five provinces of the region will be compliant with food safety regulation and are, thus, not harmful for human consumption.

Further, the checkpoint does not only aim to deliver safe and nutritious food to localities in the region, but is also a regulatory measure to provide an added deterrence to those who want to benefit from the destruction of our marine biodiversity through the illegal exploitation of aquatic wildlife species which are already endangered, rare, and threatened.

Addressing food security while supplying domestic and international consumers with food that is both safe and of high quality, at the same time, putting a stop to the illegal exploitation of our wildlife species is a directive mandated to the agency pursuant to the Philippine Fisheries Code. Hence, as transgressors do not choose any convenient time to commit their atrocities, those who continue to fight for the protection and conservation of our fisheries and aquatic resources will also be relentless in the battle to suppress Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Activities.