The Tumbokons

Nineteen ninety-five (1995) marked the birth of La Herminia, the year when Allan Tumbokon, one of Mrs. Herminia Mienez Tumbokon’s five children, thought long and hard about his career path.  Allan used to work as a civil engineer at the provincial office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on a contractual basis.  Having a nonpermanent status, he found himself jobless for months everytime his contract ended.  Allan gave his employment condition a serious thought and realized he wanted and needed to change job. 

He scanned the environment and found that handweaving of piña fabric had slowed down for lack of capital among small family-based entrepreneurs in Kalibo.  There was practically no one in the neighborhood or within Old Buswang who was into serious piña fabric production. 

 

Although there was strong market demand for the fabric, several piña weaving entrepreneurs were closing shop.  Competition was hardly present.  This, reasoned Allan, was a very good opportunity for him to venture into the trade.  In addition, there was this longing in him to revive the tradition of piña handweaving, for after all, it was in his province that the piña industry was born.

 

His mother and his wife, Nelda, rallied behind him.  The couple bought their first two-harness handloom from one of their principal wedding sponsors. The more articulate Nelda accompanied the quiet and once shy Allan to as far as the mountains to get assurance of a continuous supply of piña fiber.  When finally he was convinced that there were fiber suppliers within Aklan, he prepared for the next step - learning how to weave.  It did not take long to learn basic handloom weaving by capitalizing on his mother’s knowledge of the trade.  He soon acquired two more units of two-harness looms so that Allan, Nelda, and Nanay Herminia were weaving part time.

 

Their first major sale was in Divisoria, Manila, worth P30,000 paid in cash by a Chinese trader in 1996.  Allan does not remember the volume of the piña and piña/silk fabrics sold, but he well remembers that this single sale earned for him a P10,000 profit.  This was a very encouraging incentive for Allan to push through with weaving, strengthening his belief that it was, indeed, a lucrative business.

 

The P10,000 served as seed money for the full-blown venture.  This amount though was far from enough.  Family members pooled their resources in their desire to support Allan’s idea. Allan’s father gave his retirement pay as a security guard, Nelda offered her first salary as a teacher, while sisters Arlyne and Adory invested part of their savings.  Allan, of course, provided all of his savings to reinforce his capital. The Tumbokons invested about P100,000 as initial capital.

 

With Allan, Nelda, and Nanay Herminia working about three hours each per day, the enterprise attained a 50 yard per month production of plain weave piña blended with silk and pure piña cloth.  La Herminia used to sell these fabrics at P320–P600 per yard.

 

Soon, Allan’s sister Arlyne, a chemical engineer working independently in Manila as a government employee, marketed their products consisting of pure piña and piña/silk fabrics to Lumban, Laguna, which is noted for excellent embroidery work.  Lumban entrepreneurs in turn sold their embroidered products intended for the traditional Barong Tagalog (the Philippines’ national attire for gentlemen) to local and international fashion designers.

 

By mid-1996, more requests had flowed in from Lumban.  To cope with the increasing demand, Allan decided to hire five weavers and went into subcontracting scheme with other independent family weavers in their province. Lumban entrepreneurs remained their sole market.   At the same time, Allan started to devote his full time to weaving.

Collection of payments, however, became a problem.  La Herminia encountered delayed payments and bouncing checks.  With the business getting bad, Arlyne thought of selling their materials directly to the designers in Metro Manila.  Allan and Arlene, however, knew that they had to come up with better if not unique designs for the fashion designers to notice them.