WHILE tourists mostly throng the Kota Kinabalu Handicraft Market for souvenirs, locals head here when they need a quick fix for their sartorial articles.

Here, 27-year-old Mell Palso, a third-generation Filipino, sits before a sewing machine and rifles through the coloured threads in a tin box.

He selects a spool of thread that matches the green school trousers a boy and his father have brought to him, hooks the spool on to the machine’s pin and steps on the treadle.

In an instant, the whirr of the sewing machine’s wheel begins and 10 minutes later, the trousers have been shortened to fit the school boy perfectly.

In between customers, Palso passes the time chatting with the other street tailors and peddlars at the market.

“On a good day like this, when school has just opened, I can make up to RM200. But some days, we earn nothing at all,” said the father of four.

He says his small monthly income as a street tailor is enough to maintain his “small family”.

His day is long, starting at 9am and ending at midnight.

Many such days at the market have allowed Palso to witness the Kota Kinabalu skyline change over the last 10 years as new buildings rise and the city’s waterfront is developed.

Lifeline for refugees

The Sabah capital is home not just to many generations of Filipinos but also to their unique roadside tailoring trade.

Street tailors began arriving in 1983, said Palso, to the market building that was purpose-built for Filipino refugees to ply a trade and earn some money after fleeing unrest in their homeland.

Persatuan Peniaga Kraftangan Sabah Chairman Ruhil Sailadjan said there are 19 tailors currently operating at the market.

“The premises was built in a collaboration between the state government and the United Nations refugee agency, UNCHR. 

“It was meant to allow Filipinos who fled unrest back home to open up a business and make a living while seeking asylum in Sabah,” Ruhil, 57, said.

The original group were master tailors from the Philippines, he added. Since tailoring was their only skill, they were allowed to set up small sewing businesses outside the market.

“Many of them are of Suluk descent to whom tailoring is a highly respectable trade and skill. The work is painstaking and tedious.

“Many of the original tailors have died or grown frail and allowed their apprentices to take over their business,” said Ruhil.

The refugees now hold either a MyKad or the IMM13 pass issued to children of Filipino refugees.

Ruhil said the street tailors are not allowed to rent space inside the market as they are not selling or making handicraft.

They pay the market a daily rent and are allowed to operate outside by the street as their services are in demand.

The association also screens tailors who work there and sets a standard price range for their services.

“It ranges from RM10 to RM50, depending on the complexity of the work required. This way, customers are assured that they are not being cheated.”

Making ends meet

Palso’s mother was a refugee, and so was his stepfather from whom he inherited the business.

He said his stepfather, Morhan Binding, had most likely inherited it from his father, too.

Palso said he learnt how to sew from Morhan in the years when the family was still together, before his stepfather left.

“My stepfather and mother were born in the Philippines. I never knew my (biological) father, but he must have passed away in the Philippines. 

“My mother fled to Sabah due to unrest in the Southern Philippines in the 1970s, before meeting my stepfather, (who also came) here,” he said. 

Other Filipinos have also inherited the business from their relatives.

Benz Saud, 46, said he took over the sewing business from his father-in-law when he fell sick.  

But the income is not enough to support his nine children. 

“I have been doing this for more than six years. I still have to find other work fixing broken sewing machines for other tailors or shops in town,” he said, adding that he also did odd jobs repairing buildings and houses to make ends meet – a familiar story to many descendants of Filipino refugees in Sabah today. – January 6, 2019.