Fishing Law: Ramírez Deems It «Serious» That Background Information Was Not Sent to Prosecutors Over Bobadilla’s «Copy-Paste» Allegations

Original article: Ley de Pesca: Ramírez califica de “grave” que no se enviaran a Fiscalía antecedentes por el “copy-paste” de Bobadilla

A CIPER investigation revealed that the Fishing Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved 60 amendments to the new Fishing Law presented by Sergio Bobadilla (UDI), which verbatim reproduce a report from the business association Sonapesca, addressing significant aspects regarding sanctions and the supervisory powers of the maritime authority.

The president of the Fishing Commission in the Chamber of Deputies, Matías Ramírez (PC), labeled it «serious» that the General Secretariat of the Chamber did not forward relevant information to the Public Ministry regarding the complaint that Deputy Sergio Bobadilla (UDI) submitted 211 amendments that verbatim replicate a report from the business group Sonapesca.

This issue came to light following a recent article published by the Journalistic Research Center (CIPER), which examined 87 legislative sessions and found that the parliamentary committee approved exactly 60 of those amendments presented by Bobadilla, modifying 42 articles of the proposed new Fishing Law.

The revelations revive the shadows of the «Corpesca case,» which ended with convictions for bribery and defrauding the treasury, and scrutinizes a legislative process aiming to replace the controversial «Longueira Law,» which was promoted during Sebastián Piñera’s first government and investigated for bribery, fraud, and illegal campaign financing, after it was proven that parliamentarians were bribed during its legislative process, notably in cases resulting in convictions for former senator Jaime Orpis and former deputy Marta Isasilas, both from the UDI.

According to the CIPER investigation, the amendments approved by the Commission are a «copy-paste» from a 226-page report commissioned by Sonapesca to the consulting firm Acuiestudios, impacting sensitive areas of the regulation: compliance management and sanctioning regime, administrative procedures, and fishery institutional framework.

In light of this situation, Deputy Ramírez first questioned the conduct of the right-wing legislator.

«Once the complaint was made in the Commission regarding the amendments presented by Deputy Bobadilla, which clearly originated from the industry, he never withdrew them. This meant that we had to proceed with the voting on these amendments in many cases,» he stated in an interview with Radio and Diario Universidad de Chile.

Secondly, the communist parliamentarian pointed to the political responsibility in the approval of these proposals. «Many of these amendments were approved solely with the favorable votes from the right, which unfortunately has a temporary majority in the Commission; whenever parliamentarians from Biobío, from various sectors, particularly the DC, such as Eric Aedo, have voted in favor of these types of amendments,» he explained.

Nevertheless, the core of his criticism targets an apparent institutional omission, as the Chamber’s Secretariat did not send the relevant information to the Public Ministry after the irregularities became known.

«What seems serious is that one of the requests made to the General Secretariat of the Chamber was to deliver this information to the Public Ministry. According to the information exposed, this was never done, and that really does seem to me to be a serious matter that needs to be investigated, because it was an explicit request and one of the agreements that the Fishing Commission had in that session where the 211 copied amendments from Bobadilla to the industry were denounced,» Ramírez warned.

This legislative «copy-paste» is not an isolated incident, but a consolidation of a practice first revealed in 2024 when CIPER documented that Bobadilla, along with other deputies, introduced the initial package of 211 amendments copied from the business document. Of that total, 76% was a verbatim copy. With the progress of the legislative process, it has now been verified that 60 of Bobadilla’s proposals have altered the text. Among the notable changes is the modification of Article No. 279, regarding serious offenses, where the deputy managed to have at least nine amendments literally extracted from the Sonapesca report approved during sessions in October and November 2024.

Another significant case is Article No. 362, concerning the powers of Sernapesca. An amendment by Bobadilla, replicated from the business group, removed a paragraph granting officials of the Service and the Navy «the status of ministers of faith» in their supervisory duties, weakening the legal backing of their actions. Additionally, in Article No. 360, concerning transparency, he pushed – as Sonapesca proposed – to eliminate the obligation to publish online the list of industrial operators and authorized vessels.

When contacted by CIPER about this new evidence, Deputy Bobadilla declined to comment. However, in the past, he has openly acknowledged the business origins of his proposals. In a session on August 14, 2024, while presenting an amendment, he stated: «I want to say that this amendment is not mine; I have received it from key leaders in the industrial fishing sector and also from artisanal fishing. Therefore, I have adopted it as my own, but the intellectual author of this amendment is not me, and that is why I will vote in favor of it.»

On his part, Deputy Eric Aedo (DC), a member of the committee, stated that «any situation that seems questionable in the way a Fishing Law is being processed must be investigated.» Regarding a possible action by the Prosecutor’s Office, he remarked: «we had understood that an investigation was initiated ex officio by the Prosecutor’s Office, but apparently, that came to nothing or at least I have no information.» Aedo also defended the interests of the industrial fishing sector in his region –»in the Biobío region, thousands of jobs are linked to industrial fishing»– and projected a complex future for the project under the administration of the newly elected president, José Antonio Kast (Republican Party).

«This law is still being processed in the Chamber of Deputies, and I see its processing very difficult in the next legislative period because I believe it will not have the support of the Executive Power that will take office starting March 11,» he stated.

Ramírez, for his part, expressed doubts over the new Fishing Law’s processing concluding before the current administration of President Gabriel Boric ends.

«We have tried to conduct work that enables substantial changes to the Longueira Law. Unfortunately, in this government, it will be impossible to conclude the processing of this bill. We hope that the new Fishing Commission, which has to continue addressing this matter, makes a decision concerning that future,» he indicated.

The CIPER investigation suggested that the number of approved amendments via «copy-paste» «could increase as the legislative debate progresses toward the transitional provisions of the project, where –according to sources linked to the processing– a substantial part of the new Fishing Law is defined,» leaving the door open for the traces of the business text to potentially expand further in the future regulation governing a sector historically marked by influence peddling.