San Remigio residents earn from weaving pandan leaves

CEBU, Philippines - Apart from using pandan leaves as an aromatic flavoring ingredient on rice and other dishes, residents in the municipality of San Remigio have found an alternative source of income from weaving the palm-like leaves into bayongs, making it also easier for the local government to eventually implement the plastic ban ordinance.

There were 35 residents in the northern part of Cebu province who have benefitted from the livelihood opportunity initiated by the Department of Trade and Industry Cebu Provincial Office (DTI-CPO) Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program under the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB) program.

This was the second BUB livelihood training for the agrarian reform beneficiaries following the “lampakanay” weaving project in Balamban, Cebu in line with the national government’s strategy in poverty reduction.

The BUB approach is envisioned to help the government meet one of its millennium development goals to decrease the poverty rate from 26.5 percent in 2009 to 16.6 percent by 2015.

The Philippine pandan plant, also called as “romblon” in other parts in the country, is a salt-tolerant plant that grows by the seashore. In the province of Cebu, this is found to be rich in San Remigio and also abundant in areas in Barili, Camotes and Bogo.

It is used as a flavor ingredient and green food coloring in dishes, deserts, teas and herbal mixtures.

The young leaves of the pandan plant are sliced into fine strips to be weaved into useful products such as sleeping mats, place mats, small bags, backpacks, boxes, jewelry containers, and trays among others.

For San Remigio, the townsfolk of Barangay Calambua and other agrarian reform communities learned to weave it into “bayongs”, also called as market tote bags.

These “bayongs” are in two kinds – the utility “bayongs” which are used to carry heavy items by locals and the fashionable “bayongs” that are designed in different trending styles for export purposes.Majority of the demand come from utility “bayongs”.

DTI-Cebu business development division chief Elias Tecson said that this livelihood program is strongly supported by the local government of San Remigio led by Mayor Mariano Martinez who is also aggressively into the no plastic ordinance that encourages his constituents and retail stores in using alternatives like “bayongs” and reusable green bags. The cheapest “bayong” is pegged at P10.

After the training, Tecson shared the agency’s plan to tie up the municipality with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) who are looking for containers of fingerlings or young fish.

“With the abundance of raw materials in San Remigio, there is a ready market for the community since these “bayongs” could be used as containers by BFAR,” he told The Freeman.

The biggest purchase order of BFAR will take place early next year. The trade department, Tecson said, shall ink a memorandum of agreement for both parties hopefully within this year.

The first phase of the skills development training that was held last September 24 to 26 in the municipal hall of San Remigio involved the basic knowledge of “bayong” weaving. Each trainee was able to come up with two to three bayongs after the training.

There were two trainers from the Balaunong Nagkahiusang Igsuon sa Kalamboan (BaNIKa), an organization of weavers from the town of Barili. They were Saturnina Suico and Rosalina Marturillas. A typical weaver can finish three bayongs in a day. Each bayong can be sold at P70.

The upgrading skills training which will be the second phase of the program shall cover the improvement of the competency of the weaver that will ensure higher product quality, efficiency of the worker and faster production. It is scheduled on October 7 to 11.

The third phase of the training program that will be conducted on October 22 to 26 will focus more on product development and new designs creation to enable the weavers to come up with unique designs to be offered to the market.

Under the National Expenditure Program, the national government has allocated P8.397 billion for the BUB project implementation among the 565 local government units.For this training in San Remigio, Tecson said that there was an allotted budget of P250,000. /JOB (FREEMAN)