Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol together with Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) National Director Eduardo Gongona and other key officials gave a GO signal on the resumption of sardine fishing activities on March 1, 2018 at Permex in Talisayan, Zamboanga City.
The resumption comes after a three-month closed season.
BFAR Administrative Circular 255 issued in November 15, 2014 mandates a closed season for sardine fishing which commences every 1st day of December until March 1 of the following year. The Circular covers the fishing grounds in East Sulu Sea, Basilan Strait, and Sibuguey Bay. Now on its seventh year, BFAR continues to implement closed season to give time for the fish population to recover and reproduce, as well as to ensure sustainable fishing grounds.
Zamboanga provides 80% of the total canned sardines production of the country, which allows for the employment of 20,000 fishing field personnel and 15,000 employees for the canning facilities.
During his visit, Piñol committed P50 million (M) loan funds under the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program to be used for livelihood programs of displaced workers during the closed season. This is on top of the P50 million to be used for the construction of farm to market roads in Zamboanga. The agri chief also suggested that affected fishers venture in egg laying production and ornamental fishing as alternative livelihood..
“Livelihood programs should be provided to affected parties because if not these individuals may violate the closed season because they have no other source of income,” the agri chief explained.
“I came here to help workers displaced by the closed season find alternative means of livelihood,” he added.
Long-time sardine industry stakeholder Edgar Lim notes that the Zamboanga sardine industry provides a huge number of livelihood opportunities for the people. The industry has also opened up various businesses such as ice plants, fishing equipment stores and machine shops, hardware stores, spare parts distributorship and repair shops, which further boost the local economy.
Rep. Celso Lobregat of the First District of Zamboanga City shared that during the closed season, factories perform repair and maintenance work so workers are not left jobless.
“Results have been fantastic and tremendous. In fact, other countries are already trying to replicate what we have started in Zamboanga, because it has brought a lot of benefits especially now that we have sustainable supply of sardines,” he added.
Due to its success , closed season is now observed in other fishing grounds like the Visayan Sea, Northeastern Palawan, and Davao Gulf among others.
“The closed season is one of the best success stories that happened in the Filipino Fishing history.” Piñol said.
To ensure the compliance of the closed season and provide secure fishing grounds, the agri chief turned over four 38-footer twin engine fiberglass patrol boats amounting to a total of P612,000 to the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Navy. ### (Carlos Cezar Baldosa/DA-AFID)
