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Volume 3,  Number 34              September 28 - October 4, 2003            Quezon City, Philippines


 





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Bulacan’s Salt Farms Melt Down

For decades Bulacan, a province north of Manila, used to be one of the Philippines’ biggest producers of salt. But when the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was ratified by the Senate in 1994, many salt farms started closing one after the other as cheap salt imports flooded the market. Worse, hundreds of families dependent on the salt industry lost their sole source of income.

By Dabet Castañeda
Bulatlat.com  

Farmer tends to his salt farm.

Elsewhere in the Philippines, salt is considered a viand as a last resort for poor families.  But even for salt farmers in Bulacan, salt is becoming a rare find on their dining tables.  Their salt farms are closing down with the globalization-driven entry of imported salt in the Philippine market.

Bulacan, about 50 kms north of Manila, is one of the biggest salt-producing provinces in the country.  At the height of salt production in the province in the 1980s, it boasted of producing and supplying about 162,162 tons or 45 percent of salt products (edible and industrial) throughout the country.   Today, it only produces about 15 percent of the total supply of salt in the market.  Of the 52 salt farms, 32 have closed, 17 of which have been demolished.  Indeed, the salt business in the province is slowly melting down. 

Big demand for salt

As a prime commodity, salt has a great demand.  Aside from being used for food, it is a vital component of industrial products such as steel, fabric, paper and even bullets.  It is also a main ingredient in manufacturing Filipino foods such as dried fish, fish sauce and shrimp paste.

UNICEF consultant Mr. Venkatesh Mannar says the estimated annual salt demand in the country is 240,000 tons for human and animal consumption and another 120,000 tons for industry. 

Signs of profit

A frontier land for homesteaders until the early 1940s, the coastline of Bulacan (which consists of parts of Obando, Bulacan, Malolos, Paombong and Hagonoy) was since developed into fishponds by poor fisherfolk. 

As it is beside Manila Bay, it is accessible to salt water, the prime source of sea salt.  Seeing the possibility of producing salt by solar evaporation from seawater, the fisherfolk turned some fishponds (locally called "fish pens") into salt farms and by the early 1950s, the salt business in the province was fully matured.  Then quite profitable, the production caught the attention of a number of landlords and lured them to invest in it.

The late Don Roman Santos, a landlord from Pampanga, saw signs of hefty profit in salt production and was one of the first who made a big investment in the province, particularly in Matalaba (Paombong), Matilakin and Propius (Bulacan).  He commissioned a number of fisherfolk in the area to build fishponds convertible to salt farms during the summer.  (As salt is naturally produced from salt water and solar energy, its production is seasonal.  Asinan or the areas where sea salt is produced are open for production for only six months, from December to May of the next year.)

As the demand for the product peaked, the price of salt increased sharply as well and indeed provided substantial income to salt producers. From PhP 0.30 (US$0.15) per cavan in the 1950s, the prices went up to PhP100 (US$ 1.81) per cavan in the 1990s, depending on the supply. (Table 1 shows the increase of the price of salt from the 1950s to the 1990s)

Business fears

Chinese investor Andres Tan, one of the biggest owners of salt farms in Bulacan, inherited the family’s business when his father died in the mid-1980s.  He started to feel worried about the business in 1998 when the price of local salt could not compete with the price of imported salt in the market. 

He put his lands in Namayan, Pulo-pulo and Masili on lease, demolished his salt farm in Lintaw and in 2003, returned the salt farms in Borja, Sentral and Palapat to their owners.  He has reportedly invested his money into some other businesses of the family. 

After the Philippine Senate ratified the General Agreement on Tarrifs and Trade in 1994, the country started importing cheaper industrial salt from India and the Middle East. 

Sensing danger, many salt laborers coordinated their protest actions against the entry of imported salt in the Philippine market.  In 1996, they formed an organization called Asinan Bulacan.  However, as salt farmers and hired hands started to lose their jobs, the organization folded up four years later. 

Sopronio Javier, former chair of Asinan Bulacan and himself a salt laborer, says that after imported salt penetrated the Philippine market in 1994, its price dropped as low as PhP40 (US$ 0.72) per cavan (40kl/cv).  This brought the price of locally produced salt down to PhP50 (US$ .90) per cavan (54kl/cv).  Today, the price of local salt has sunk to its lowest at PhP35 (US$ 0.63) per cavan to be able to compete with imported salt in the market. 

Moreover, Javier underscores the pivotal role of salt merchants in the market.  He says the buyers, mostly Chinese businessmen, purchase salt from salt farmers at very low prices but sell this at rates almost ten times higher.  He says when sold to food companies or industries salt is priced at PhP350 (US$ 6.36) to PhP400 (US$ 7.27) per cavan.  

What’s worse, Javier says, salt merchants have developed a mechanism, whereby locally-produced sea salt is mixed with imported industrial salt and the mixture classified as edible salt in the market.  This makes it more difficult for local edible salt to yield more income in the market for its producers as mixed salt is priced even more cheaply. (Table 2 shows the list of salt bed owners and the status of their production or non-production as of September 2003.  A salt farm is considered demolished when it is closed for 5 years.) 

While salt producers have invested their funds to more sustainable and profitable businesses, the salt farmers in Bulacan have lost their main source of income and livelihood.   

How it was 60 years ago

Villagers still recall how the production of salt in the province started in the early 1940s.  Landowners tasked fisherfolk to cut the wood in the islands, divide the land into salt beds, lay clay on them, and put up a storage room (kamalig) for salt.  As part of the agreement, the landowners paid these salt laborers only with food.  However, these laborers' hard pioneering work and dedication also earned them a right to tend the salt farms.  In later years, as a result of their collective action these salt farmers were already paid monthly allowances.   

Margarita Santos-Marukot, now 70, started as a salt farmer at the age of 16.  She remembers helping her mother tile clay on salt beds near the area where they live.  Nana Etang is a native of Barangay Namayan, one of the islands in the coastline of Malolos. 

In the early 1970s Nana Etang, together with her husband Celso, and sons Lambert, Junior and Jerry, built the salt farms in Pangatdan, a neighboring island of Namayan.  In 1972, they were hired as caretakers of the salt farm.  The production of salt became their only means of subsistence.  However, in 1996, the landlord cancelled their contract and asked them to leave the salt farm. 

Nana etang

Pinagbintangan kaming  nagnanakaw ng isda mula sa palaisdaan” (We were accused of stealing fish from the fishpond), says an upset Nana Etang.  She swears her family never engaged in such theft and adds the owners wanted them out because they were suspected of supporting New People’s Army guerrillas in the area. 

But the old lady refused to move an inch unless her family was given rightful compensation.  Kami ang nagpundar ng asinan, naglingkod kami ng mahigit dalawang dekada tapos sisirain nila ang reputasyon naming dahil ayaw na nila sa amin?  Hindi talaga kami umalis  hanggat hindi nila binabayaran ang aming right sa asinan.  Karapatan namin yun” (We supplied the seed money for the salt farm, served for more than two decades.  Now they besmirch our reputation because they are now against us.  We really did not leave until they paid for our right to the farm.  This is our right), she stresses. 

Her family was paid PhP550,000 (US$ 10,000)which in turn was used to buy another section of a salt farm in Matalaba, also in Malolos.  However, the salt farm in Matalaba was closed in 2000 and has never opened since because the producers say salt production has ceased to be profitable.

Salt farms in the province employ some 600 families or roughly 6,000 individuals, including salt farm helpers.  Last season (December 2002 – May 2003), the population dropped to almost half. A total of 320 families have simply lost their livelihood. 

The importation of salt may have provided profits to merchants and importers but for the salt workers, they did not lose just their jobs, they also lost decades of an entire way of life. Bulatlat.com

Table 1 
The increase of the price of salt 
(
1950s to the 1990s)

Year

PhP price per cavan

early 50s

.30          

mid 50s  

.50

late 50s  

1.00                        

early 60s

1.50

late 60s  

2.00

early 70s

3.00

late 70s  

5.00

early 80s

6.00

mid 80s  

7.50

late 80s  

14.00 to 30.00

early 90s

70.00 to 100.00

 

Table 2 
The list of salt bed owners and the status of their production 
or non-production as of September 2003

Zone

Salt bed owners

Status

1: Bitas

Tiongson

Open

Domingo

Demolished

Cabral

Closed for 2 yrs

Blanketa

Open

Tantoco

Closed for 3 yrs

Talog

Demolished

2: Pamarawan, Dampalit, Wawang Namayan, Kaliligawan

Yapsinchai

Mario Luna

Dr. Reyes

Closed for 2 yrs

Closed for 2 yrs

Open

Tantoco

Open

Bautista

Open

Aniag

Open

3: Matalaba, Binakod

Blanketa

Open

Lantad, Lindayag, Nilad

Mario Luna

Open

Hugo Ramos

Open

Tantoco

Closed for 2 yrs

Matalaba

Closed for 3 yrs

Aquino

Closed for 4 yrs

4: Masili, Pangagtan

Toti Villanueva

Closed for 4 yrs

Bulacan, Wawang Kandulian

Andres Tan
Borlongan

Demolished
Demolished

Meneses

Demolished

Mario Santos

Open

5: Pulo-pulo, Sentral

Andres Tan

Open

Borja

Talen

Open

Borja

Open

6: Matilakin, Tapusi

Paquito Santos

Closed for 2 yrs

Wawang Kandulian

Del Rosario

Open

Dr. Reyes

Open

7: Salambaw, Palapat

Lazaro

Closed for 2 yrs

Pamansingan, Buntoan

Talen

Closed for 2 yrs

Santos

Closed for 3 yrs

8: Propius, Gemang

Blanketa

Open

Labak

Gemang Meneses

Demolished

Labak

Closed for 3 yrs

9-10: Wawang Capiz

Aniag

Demolished

Sundalo, Puñeta, Lintaw

Aniag

Demolished

Sapang Balot

Pascual

Demolished

Molina

Demolished

Enriquez

Open

Cruz

Open

Auring Meneses

Demolished

Sacdalan

Demolished

11: Pinagkaipunan, Casa

Tantoco

Open

Capol. Tata Bino, Praval

Mercado

Demolished

Tagkawayan

Sacdalan

Demolished

Cruz

Open

Dr. Gonzalez

Open

Joey Suarez

Demolished

12: Sta. Cruz, Katyang

Tantoco

Closed for 2 yrs

Wawa, Pinagulingan

Lopez

Demolished

Kubong Pula

Santos

Closed for 3 yrs

Albert Tantoco

Open

Teresita Cruz

Demolished

Zones 13 and 14 consists of salt beds in Paombong and Hagonoy .  All have stopped operations except for one in Hagonoy which has 35 families working as salt workers.

 

 

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