Fishers’ group decries low prices of ‘tawilis’ from Taal Lake
A fishers’ group on Sunday decried the low retail price of “tawilis” (Sardinella tawilis), which had dropped to P100 per kilogram from the usual P250 per kg, amid reports that bodies of the missing “sabungeros” (cockfighting enthusiasts) have been dumped in Taal Lake.
In a statement, Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said it received reports that the price of tawilis had dropped to an “all-time low” of P100 per kg in several towns in Cavite province.
Pamalakaya earlier noted that fisherfolk from the towns surrounding Taal Lake in Batangas province had already expressed concern regarding the growing public fear when it comes to buying fish in the area.
“We received reports that there are a lot of tawilis priced at P100 per kilo in several towns in Cavite. If the price of tawilis in the market is that low, the farm-gate price will surely fall even more for Taal fishermen, causing them to suffer losses,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said.
DA, BFAR support
The prices of tawilis, Hicap said, remain affected by reports of bodies dumped in Taal Lake despite statements from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) that the fish from the lake is safe to eat.
He called on the Department of Agriculture and BFAR to provide assistance to the affected fisherfolk by buying products directly from them and also by encouraging the public to continue supporting the fishers in Taal.
“The fishers will not be able to endure this kind of losses because they have already been suffering from the effects of ‘habagat’ (southwest monsoon) in the past months, in which they were rarely able to go out and fish,” Hicap said.
On Friday, technical divers from the Philippine Coast Guard began conducting retrieval operations in Taal Lake to look for the bodies of the missing cockfighters, who disappeared around April 2021 to January 2022.
A whistleblower in the case, Julie Patidongan, also known as “Totoy,” had earlier claimed that the missing sabungeros had been killed and their bodies thrown in the lake.
