This situation is hardly reassuring for a country that is set to conquer markets for bottled milkfish in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Already, companies operating in Luzon and Mindanao are thinking of exporting the same to Taiwan and Indonesia, the very same countries that breed the fry needed by the milkfish industry.

Dr. Wesley Rosario, director of the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) in Binloc, Dagupan City admitted that the country is left behind in terms of bangus fry production.

Rosario said the current situation is ironic since Taiwan and other countries used to purchase bangus fry from the country in the 1970s.

Many such bangus fry smugglers were arrested and charged with sabotaging the industry during martial law and beyond.

The technology to make better milkfish and increase its reproductive capacity was developed in the country.

This technology was also pirated by foreign countries.

Concerned with the situation, government has sought to recover its dominant role in the global milkfish industry and has crafted the Philippine Bangus Development Program, Rosario said.

Rosario added that Filipino ichthyologists have simplified the technology of bangus breeding for commercial purposes.

He recalled that during those years, only the rich businessmen can venture into bangus breeding and hatchery operation since the facility would be expensive to build.

The high cost has become the bane of fish farmers, he said.

"The biggest expense is the maintenance of the mother bangus called ‘sabalo,’ which provides the eggs," he said.

The problem prompted the government to manage the broodstock, produce fries and distribute them to satellite hatcheries like the newly established Municipal Bangus Satellite hatcheries in Barangay Taggat here, the first in the region.

Unlike tilapia, bangus cannot hatch in a fishpond, and this entails additional cost for the ordinary bangus farmer.

Establishing his own facility would be exorbitant, Rosario stressed.

He likewise admitted that for so many years, the country did not know the exact production of bangus fry, depending more on catching the same in the wild.

"We’re just starting and we hope that in the next five years, our dependency on bangus fry will be lessened, if not totally contained," he said.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director Jovita Ayson and Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary for Livestock and Fisheries Cesar Drilon Jr. headed the inauguration of the newly established satellite hatchery.