Olongapo City was then the so - called " Rest and Recreation Facility " by the U.S. Military Bases and back then, flesh trade was the main source of income. Sexual and substance abuse was so rampant that even a child is exposed to an environment of sin. PREDA Foundation formed an alternative livelihood that will return the dignity and respect into the lives of the people, and the producers from Baloy and Nagbaculao were some of them. They joined the PREDA Fair Trading after attending seminars on livelihood projects that the foundation organized.

Esmeralda Arquero is 75 years old, a grandmother with many grandchildren. Her wasted long gray hair and lightly wrinkled face exudes a sprightly hardworking attitude to life. She came to Olongapo City, from the nearby province of Zambales, just north of Olongapo City, on the West Coast of Luzon Island, North of Manila. There, she grew up in a farming family of tenant farmers who never owned the land they toiled but were the economic slaves of the big land owner who was also a political personality. There was a little education for Esmeralda and a bleak future as a farmer worker forever to slog barefooted through the muddy rice fields and spend many backbreaking hours bent over planting rice seedlings for the benefits of others.

As the Vietnam War became more furious and the conflict grew to full - scale war, the Subic Base expanded and so too, the rest and recreation industry that depended on it, and the thousands of young Americans came here for a break from the horrors of war.

It was to this entertainment industry that the young Esmeralda tried to escape the drudgery of the rural life. Promised a fine job in a hotel, she came to the city and stayed with a friend from her locality in San Marcelino. But there was no good job but another form of economic slavery in the bars and clubs that catered to the US Sailors. This was not for Esmeralda who had the courage and dignity to return to her farming family but she brought with her the seed of an idea.

The one thing that was selling well in Olongapo was native handmade wicker chairs, tables, bookcases and other small items of traditional Philippine home furniture.

Esmeralda knew that the raw material grew abundantly in her farm and soon she was gathering them, and with her brothers and cousins, were making traditional items. They brought them to Olongapo and offered them for sale along the roadside to the passing military tourists. They sold a lot and a small business was born. Esmeralda had found a way out of the endless cycle of rural slavery as a landless peasant. It was only a few years until her natural intelligence guided her back to Olongapo where there were still rice fields on the outskirts. She followed the tradition and offered to be a tenant farmer on a piece of land in the village of Barretto near Baloy Beach. Together with her brother, she set up small ramshackle shake and began to clear the land and plant rice and vegetables. Her cousins joined her and they began producing rattan and buri furniture while the rice was growing. As the economy collapsed under the ferocious plundering of the Marcos regime, costs of living soared, the Vietnam war had long ended and business was desperate.

PREDA began to look for markets for the products and began design and quality training for Esmeralda and her family. With the big improvement in quality and new designs, sales in Germany and other Europeans picked - up and her family enterprise thrived and they had an economic freedom that their families had never known for generations. With help from PREDA, the Esmeralda group of producers planned to pool their earnings to buy out their rights to the land in Baloy where they were tenant farmers. The land owner was a rich family from Manila and they refused to sell seeing it as a potential tourist development location. In 1991, the massive eruption of Mt. Pinatubo showered the whole area with tons of ashes and sand, and buried many rice fields and damaged hundreds of houses, including that of Esmeralda. They were devastated, but were saved by the emergency relief aid from PREDA and new loans that enabled them to turn to full time products, now that planting was impossible.

With the emergency aid from PREDA, they rebuilt their house bigger and stronger but had to still maintain the old shack as the landowner could drive them away if they exceeded the boundaries of the existing house. Many times, the landowner tried to demolish the house and drive them off the land so as to sell it for bars and clubs. But Esmeralda resisted and sought legal assistance from PREDA, and together, they were able to protect their rights to the land and their house. They began to clear the land and plant vegetables. Today, they are still there bravely holding out against the land grabbing developers and the economic slide. The extended family prospers and thrives in simplicity. All her children and grandchildren have been to school and many have travelled away to find good jobs and settle into a life free from the bondage of the soil that they could never own. Their products are excellent and beautiful furniture items, which were small and light, were all natural materials handmade through justice and equality. Their furniture items are ideal for small apartments, sun parlors, patios and bedrooms. The rattan wicker furniture of that courageous woman, Esmeralda, is beautiful and made in dignity.

• Back to Producers Profiles Page
• Fair Trade Home Page

Please e-mail your feedback and queries
Copyright ©1997 All Rights Reserved
PREDA FOUNDATION INC.,
Upper Kalaklan, Olongapo City, Philippines
Tel: +63 47 2239629 Fax: +63 47 2239628