Flower power

It is probably because I had always thought that, if anything else, the Philippines has some of the most beautiful flowers in the world. We have been so endowed by nature. Botanists have discovered 8,000 species of flowering plants and of these, nine out of ten are orchids, some of them very rare and endemic in our islands.

Helen Valmayor put together a picture book of orchids of the Philippines. It was entitled Orchidiana Filipiniana and published by the Eugenio Lopez Foundation, a family more known as distributors of electricity. This was published in 1984 when I was still in exile and for a period these were stacked in our house in London for marketing and distribution. So I did leaf through the two volume orchid book and the memory stuck in my mind that “the most beautiful and rarest orchids are found only in the Philippines.”

Yet I also knew that when orchids are talked about, it is Thailand that comes to mind because they have successfully marketed their flowers. Orchid corsages are in their airports, in hotels, in exhibits - everywhere - to be known and bought by the world. It is a multi-million dollar export giving jobs and income to thousands of farmers in Thailand. It shows yet again our failure to use a natural resource for the benefit of our people. Still, I wanted to hope and take pride in what the Philippines had to offer at the Singapore Garden Festival that I attended last week. I searched for the Philippine participation in the fourth floor where the orchids exhibitions were.

Imagine my disappointment. The Philippine exhibition was next to the Taiwan booth, hardly a country known for orchids but the contrast was there. As a casual visitor, I did not need to measure the booths or know the types of orchids on exhibit. Taiwan’s was eye-catching and dramatic.

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That is the background I am coming from when I wrote about my disappointment about the Philippine participation in my column, “Singapore’s Calm.”   

Kelvin Neil B. Manubay, president of the Phil. Orchid Society has written me an email to give the organizers’ side and clarification.

He asked if perhaps I was referring to the Philippines exhibit on the 6th FIoor because that was not where the Philippine Orchid Society had its exhibit. It was at the “Orchid Society of South East Asia (OSSEA) Orchid Show which was simultaneously being held at the 4th floor of Suntec.”

He adds that “the Philippine Orchid Society participated in the OSSEA Orchid Show and won three major awards, namely Best Orchid Landscape Exhibit (in the 10sqm category), the Best Orchid Species of the Show and the Reserved Grand Champion for the Best Orchid of the Show award.” We brought a hundred dozens of locally produced orchid cut flowers and several orchid species. (The bringing out of species is prohibited by our laws because of the Philippine Wildlife Act.) We also used Abel Iloco weaved fabrics, rattan weaved baskets and buri hats as props for our orchid display. 

“I have had to rectify the confusion to already 47 people who have alerted me of their concern. This thing has already lowered the morale of my exhibiting team (Ms. Vangie Go and Atty. Rudy Sanidad) who in fact have to be lauded for their voluntary effort and accomplishment and for giving our country such great honor.”

CNP: In fact we are referring to the same exhibit of orchids from the Philippines. I asked my daughter-in-law to take pictures of both the Philippines and the Taiwan exhibits to show the contrast. The pictures you sent me were the same as we had taken. Given that we have a premier position in the flower power of orchids, notwithstanding the ‘awards’ the effort just did not come up to expectation. I must hasten to add that I took note of the contrast between the Philippines and Taiwan not because “your group had not done enough” but because “we could have done better.”

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So why have we not done better? The answer is the same as it is for other activities engaged into by the Philippines. I can imagine the difficulties you had to go through just to put out that exhibit without any help from the government or other private orchid growers. I am not criticizing your efforts as individuals or as a group. I am merely highlighting yet again why we fail as a nation. It is a question of attitude.

We do not have the teamwork that is needed to get ahead, if even in this instance it is merely a flower show. Yet it is symptomatic of what is wrong with our country. You can’t blame it all on the government.

We do not have that striving for excellence, whether individually or collectively, that is needed to compete with other countries in the region.  It is not because of the absence of resources either. Can you imagine what it would have been if the government, the Lopez empire and other orchid growers among the elite worked together to come up with the Philippine exhibition of orchids in Singapore? It would have been superb.

Let me reiterate again how much I value your and your group’s valiant efforts. I have devoted this entire column to put the message across although you had already said it in your email: “Nevertheless, I would like to thank you for stating that the private sector and the government should get their act together because we badly need government’s support in promoting our local floriculture industry in international events. The POS has been doing this on its own with the meager funds that it has. Maybe your comment will lead the government to support the local floricultural industry since it is a potential dollar earner and is in fact a $97.2 billion worldwide industry.”

And thank you for the invitation. Yes, I will attend the Philippine Orchid Society’s Mid-Year Orchid and Garden Show on August 13 to 23 at the Manila Seedling Bank Foundation in Quezon City. For my readers who are also into flowers, not necessarily orchids, the Philippine Orchid Society can be contacted through its secretariat at 9294425.