SILK RHAPSODY
PTRI Release, June 27,2004

Chances are you only know of silk and silk cloth made from China or Thailand. Now silk is also produced in the Philippines. There is even silk produced in Mindanao. Introduced to the Manila Fashion Scene as Mindanao silk last June in a show and later exhibited at the Ayala Center's Glorietta 4 and Greenbelt 3, glowed and shimmered. These silk fabrics were woven from pure silk yarns from cocoons produced by sericulture farmers in Mindanao on the traditional handloom. The silk weavers are women members of the Ayala Beneficiaries Association, Inc. (ABAI) which formed the ABAI Weavers Multi-purpose Cooperative (AWMC) of Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental.

COASTING TO NEW HORIZONS

These women and their families were in preparation for the development of a new airport from the Cagayan de Oro in Lambin to Laguindingan in Misamis Oriental that will meet international standards. The Ayala Foundation Inc. (AFI) of the Ayala Group of Companies, relocated them in coastal area of Laguindingan and helped these people in finding and creating livelihood that would either supplement or replace their livelihood from farming or fishing. Thus, a new craft was acquired when these ABAI members learned the handloom weaving process through training courses conducted by the Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

A NEW RHYTHM

It was through a collaborative effort with the Misamis Oriental-Cagayan de Oro City Federation of Cooperatives (MCFEDCO) that a silk project was conceived. MCFEDCO at the time was assisting the sericulture farmers of Claveria, Misamis Oriental in selling their silk cocoons by converting them into silk yarns. These farmers were trained by PTRI on sericulture. The women beneficiaries in the affected barangays of Moog, San Isidro and Tubajon partnered with the Federation in the production of silk fabrics. The vision was to produce Mindanao Silk that will primarily be identified with the Laguindingan Municipality.

To further upgrade the neophyte weaver's capability, PTRI provided a training course on Advance Handloom weaving followed by training on degumming, dyeing with the use of synthetic or natural dyes and hand spinning of silk. At the same time, PTRI assisted the conversion of the associations two-harness handlooms into four-harness handlooms.

From virtually zero knowledge in silk weaving, 23 weavers out of the 24 trained produced a total of 5,463.14 meters of silk cloth over a period of 17 months from July 2001 to November 2002. Now, a weaver produces an average of two meters of 30-inch width silk cloth in a day. With the gross income of P 300.00/day for weaving two meters of fabric, other family members including the males of the ABAI beneficiaries signified interest in becoming weavers themselves. They, too, were trained with the help of PTRI technologists. To date, these ABAI members have progressed into dyeing of the silk woven. Moreover, they have come up with 13 different color schemes using natural and synthetic dyes, really a Rhapsody in Silk!      (Malu A. Flores, PTRI Media Service)