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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Tuesday, February 14, 2017
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LAST Saturday, this writer had the privilege of motoring up the mountain barangay of Cairohan in Bingawan, Iloilo together with Regional Director Toni June Tamayo of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and his better half Dinda. Our host, Concepcion “Connie” Ca-as Castillo, welcomed us to her “paradise” – an eight-hectare organic farm of livestock, vegetables and fruits.
This once sleepy barangay has gained a new image of productivity due to Madam Carillo’s initiative. A concrete winding road had been constructed to further boost its appeal to visitors, wholesale buyers and technical-vocational students.
There is where the Kryz Vocational and Technical School is located. It offers such TESDA-registered courses as Cookery, Food and Beverage Services, Bread/Pastry Production and Welding. With a dormitory big enough for 160 heads, students from other places would prefer to spend the nights there.
The farm-located school is an improvement over its first and still active location on Delgado St., Iloilo City.
Over a sumptuous lunch of organic vegetables, catfish and pork, the enterprising educator/farmer told us that while her decision to go into organic farming was practically aimed at enabling her school to offer courses in organic agriculture (she being a BS-Agriculture graduate), her farm had also turned out to be a livelihood provider, producing catfish, ducks, chickens and pigs.
She waxed enthusiastic about organic catfish, which does not require heavy capitalization. It thrives on natural running water in compartmentalized ponds. Each mother “hito” gives birth to literally thousands of eggs, which fatten into marketable adults in four months. They feed on protein-rich worms that her farm also cultures.
The worm’s waste is one of the by-products used to fertilize organic plants, one of which is the madre de agua that ducks and chickens devour.
Connie and her husband have seven children, one of whom – chef Mary Queen Carillo – has made a national name for herself as “Batang TESDA” awardee in 2015 for besting other participants in culinary arts competitions.
No doubt, the Carillo example has motivated another school owner, Marissa Moscoso, to also establish a farm-oriented school in her barangay – San Pedro, San Jose, Antique. It’s the Goodhands Development and Training Center, which offers Animal Production and Organic Agriculture, among others.
Hats off to Connie and Marissa.
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At Hotel del Rio the other day, golfer Melvin de Leon introduced me to two “balikbayan” relatives – Pershing dela Cruz and Hector de Leon – who are based in San Francisco, California and New York City, respectively. Both have grown big as bosses, not employees, of American employees.
Pershing has been operating Sean Transport Services in San Francisco for 23 long years already. He has a fleet of vans that caters to kidney patients who regularly go to hospitals and dialysis centers for dialysis.
A Business Administration graduate of the University of San Agustin (Class 1962), Pershing landed in San Francisco in 1990 and found his first job as busboy in a restaurant. While saving his income, he looked for business opportunities and soon discovered the need for regular home-to-dialysis transportation. He now serves 140 patients.
Hector de Leon is also in the van business. His fleet of seven units is on call to transport disabled patients to various hospitals and rehabilitation centers in pre-determined territories outside of New York City.
A mechanical engineer (Western Institute of Technology, Class 1975), Hector first worked as draftsman at the Bureau of Public Works (now Department of Public Works and Highways). In 1977, he flew to New York to do the same. He started his transport business in 1985.
Pershing and Hector are living proofs that there is room at the top for Filipino immigrants in the USA./PN
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