Job losses pile up on tuna ban

SENATORS Manuel Roxas II and Manuel Villar Jr. are seeking an inquiry into the two-year ban on tuna fishing and its impact on the industry, specifically on Mindanao.

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission on Dec. 12, 2008 issued Conservation and Management Measure No. 2008-01 that closed certain sections of the Pacific Ocean from tuna fishing starting January 2009. A treaty-based organization, the commission was created to conserve and manage tuna and other migratory fish stock in the Pacific Ocean.

Villar, the Nacionalista Party’s standard bearer in the May polls, said in Senate Bill 1547 that the NH Agro Industrial Corp. had officially informed the Labor Department of a six-month work stoppage affecting 208 workers.

Phillips Seafoods Philippines Corp., which processes and exports frozen tuna products, was also forced to cut 29 jobs after suspending operations for three months to curb operating loss, Villar said.

The senate committee on labor and employment should conduct an inquiry with a view to drafting intervention policies to help affected workers while the ban is in force, he said.

In Region 12, which consists of the provinces of South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and the city of General Santos, known as Soccksargen, about 120,000 residents depend on the tuna industry.

While 50 fishing companies are located in General Santos, 13 of these have licenses to fish in the high seas covered by the ban, according to Villar. Five of the 13 have fishing agreements with Pacific Island nations such as Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, implying that eight of the affected companies which employ some 1,600 people have to fish in Philippine waters until the ban is lifted.

“There is a real and genuine need to address the ban on tuna fishing in order to protect and preserve the country’s national interest relative to its domestic and international tuna trading position,” Roxas said in Senate Bill 1548 that was filed last week.

Roxas, the Liberal Party’s vice presidential candidate and a former trade and industry secretary, said the Philippines ranked seventh among the top tuna producing countries in the world, second in terms of tuna catches and third among canned tuna producers.

The tuna industry accounts for 12 percent of the total fish production in the country, generating over 120,000 jobs and $280 million in annual exports, he said.

Apart from directing an inquiry, the Roxas bill wants the senate committee on trade and commerce to propose measures that would strengthen the country’s trade laws, conventions and agreements on the tuna industry, and to protect the stakeholders in tuna fishing while cushioning the market from the ban’s impact. –Eileen A. Mencias, Manila Standard Today