JOLO, Sulu Province — The provincial government here announced on Monday that commercial fishing companies in the Zamboanga Peninsula and from other regions in the country were banned from entering and fishing inside their territorial waters.

This comes as Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan ordered to seize fishing boats found entering and fishing inside the Sulu Sea effective on 13 September.

Tan said talks between officials from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and officials from  major fishing companies  in ZamPen and other parts of the country are ongoing.

Pending results from their ongoing talks, the provincial government will ban all fishing boats from entering and fishing inside the Sulu Sea and if they are inside, authorities will seize their fishing vessels.

The governor stressed that the presence of big commercial boats or vessels fishing inside the Sulu Sea is depriving local fishermen earnings for their families.

A formal advisory was also issued to fishing ports in Zamboanga City informing the management of fishing ports that "fishing boats caught entering and fishing  their territorial waters would be seized and confiscated."

While Tan is considering that about 20,000 workers of these fishing companies will temporarily lose their job or income, he insisted that the province have more than one million residents and most of them defend fishing as their primary source of livelihood.

The  affected fishing company workers are under no work, no pay arrangements with most of them being poor farmers from the province across the Visayas  and Mindanao regions.

"If we continue to allow these fishing boats to fish inside the Sulu Sea, our people will also suffer and lose their income," Tan said.

"Sulu is predominantly agricultural with farming and fishing as its main livelihood activities and fishing is the most important industry since the Sulu Seas is one of the richest fishing grounds in the country," he added.