Canneries shed jobs as sardines ban starts

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Edward Tarabi’s face was sad as he sat under a shade in Barangay Recodo here on Thursday, where several other drivers of contraptions called habal-habal were waiting for passengers amid a downpour.

“There are so many of us (habal-habal drivers) but the passengers are few,” Tarabi said.

Just a few days ago, Tarabi, a father of four, was earning P225 per day as conveyor operator in a sardine-canning plant here.

He lost his job on Dec. 1 when the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) started enforcing a temporary ban on sardine fishing.

Street job

Driving habal-habal (motorcycle turned into a public utility vehicle) brings Tarabi barely P100 a day.

Tarabi said he was forced to look for another source of income to feed his family. “There is no job at the plant anymore,” he said.

Tarabi is just one of at least 30,000 direct and indirect workers in the sardine industry, who are feeling the effects now of the three-month ban on sardine fishing.

He said with his current income, even buying canned sardines might not be possible as sardine prices were expected to increase as a result of the ban.

Limited ban

Asis Perez, BFAR national director, said the ban on sardine fishing was being implemented in the 30-nautical mile stretch of waters between Western Mindanao and Sulu and would not kill the industry.

“The ban is to allow the sardines to spawn to prevent the depletion of supply,” Perez said.

The ban, he said, applies only to commercial fishing operations.

He said there was no reason for the price of fish, especially sardine, to increase.