Village molds money out of mud

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | May 30, 2004 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
SAN JUAN, Batangas-On the road to the famed white sand beaches of this town, local and foreign tourists first make stops along the highway in Barangay Palahanan, where the roadsides lined with stores full of pots in various designs, sizes, colors and styles never fail to attract buyers.
But what these visitors do not know is that the pots come from mud from a far away creek and has sustained many lives for three decades.
"For more than 30 years, the pottery business in this village, which has turned into an industry, has sent so many children to school, raised families and kept the food on our tables," says Enrique Carandang, owner of the biggest pottery business in this town. "And everyday, our potters mold the pots from the clay we get from the mud of the creeks in Barangay Libato."
The creeks of Libato, according to him, are located at the eastern side of San Juan and has been their source of the clay material used for making pots for so many years.
Carandang, now in his 60s, started the pottery business 30 years ago when he used to sell other potters' pots from San Juan to his clients in Batangas, Manila and nearby provinces.
Innovation
"In 1976, a client from Pampanga taught me how to mass produce pots. That time, pot-making was done by hand and production was small and slow," Carandang said. "What we did was just to find better and faster ways to produce the pots."
From the sales he generated, Carandang was able to buy an electric pot molder that sped up the process of pot-making.
"That time, I was the only one who had that technology here in San Juan," Carandang says. "But even with that technology, grinding the mud to turn it into fine clay was still done manually."
At that time grinding the clay required two to five men stomping on the mud to crack and grind it into fine clay. These took hours and turned the clay grinders' feet into callous-filled and thick-skinned heels and toes.
"But now, thanks to technology, we have an electric clay grinder that does the job," Carandang says.
Same principles
Carandang's wife, Emilia, 63, has been helping in the business for the last three decades, too. "The principles of pot-making has never changed. Technology just added to the speed and quantity but the process is still the same."
According to Emilia, the process starts by collecting mud from the creeks of Libato, grinding this into clay, then molding this via an electric pot molder which churns 80 pots per hour. When the molded clay takes shape, it is then polished for an even finish, then dried in the open air.
"After it's dried in the open, we then take it into the kiln to harden. Up to now, we still use the pugon or the big stone oven to dry out the pots. And after the allotted time in the kiln, we get the finished product," Emilia says.
According to Emilia, the peak season for the sale of the pots is during the summer season when tourists who are on their way to San Juan's beaches would stop on the way and buy loads of pots.
"The pots are always in demand and there are always customers who come to us to buy our pots," she says. "But slow sales occur in June or July during the opening of the schools."
Emilia says their biggest customers don't come from Batangas province alone as they have regular customers from Antipolo's garden businesses, while orders come from as far as Daet, Camarines Sur, Mindoro island provinces and Marinduque.
Customers in far provinces would regularly call them and her husband would deliver the pots. In Batangas, the biggest buyers come from the garden farms of Batangas City, Lipa City and San Jose town.
According to Emilia, their relatives have also joined the business and some have set up their own pottery businesses. "We were able to help our nephews and nieces finish their studies. We were also able to remodel our home, buy our delivery jeep and buy our car. All of them from the pottery business."
The pottery business grew even into the neighborhood so that the entire Barangay Palahanan became engaged in the pottery trade, which has become a village industry.
Function and art
When the plastic plant boxes and pots flooded the market and threatened the clay pot business, Carandang says the clay pots of San Juan were not affected.
"People would always prefer the clay pots because our clients say the cool temperature helps in the growth of the plants, which the plastic ones don't do," he says.
Although Carandang admits that clay pots are heavier compared with the plastic ones, he says the potters of San Juan have tried better strategies to keep the business alive.
"Some of us in the pottery business have started creating artistic designs for the pots and there are also potters who tried to glaze their pots. That has turned the ordinary clay pots that used to be planted with decorative plants into a decoration itself," Carandang says. "But glazing requires more intense heat and the process is really expensive."
He says what the town's pottery industry needs now is to create a niche and market for the glazed clay pots.
Mini-pots
Another innovation that the San Juan potters implemented are the mini-falls and fountains that use small clay pots. These command higher prices when sold at the malls as they serve not only as decoration but give a therapeutic effect to people.
Monica Aguba, 65, another potter whose shop was near Carandang's store, has been making pottery art for more than three years now.
In front of her shop are mini-falls and fountains which use the small pots that are also made in San Juan.
"The mini-falls and fountains design gave the potters here another option on how to market the pots," Aguba says. "We've been in the business since 1960 but it was only recently that we got a higher price for the small pots because we use them in the mini-falls and fountains."
According to her, the mini-falls and fountains sell for P700 to P3,000, depending on the size and design of the pots.
Same price
But having the entire village in the same business has its downside, too. According to Carandang, they have never been able to raise the prices of the pots for the last decade.
"The prices of our pots have remained the same since the last decade. Even if the electricity bill has been raised and the gasoline price has hiked up, the prices of our pots have remained cheap. That's because nobody wants to raise the price," he says.
Carandang says competition among the potters, who have grown to more than 50 in their barangay alone, has become so stiff that most of them would lower the price just to sell.
"If anybody here tries to raise the prices, nobody follows. And what happens next? People will buy only from the shops with the lower prices and nobody will buy the pots that cost more," Carandang says. "No matter how good the quality of our pots is, people would always prefer the cheapest price. And that hurts the business," he adds.
To solve that dilemma, he says, he bought the land near the creek at Libato where they get the clay. That way, he does not have to pay the landowner for every truckload of clay he collects.
"Pottery is a good business if you know how to manage it right and reduce the overhead expenses," Carandang says. "We have survived this long, we should know how to cut the expenses and add to the profit without borrowing money from anybody."
"From mud, we turn the clay into pots that bring us money. But it shouldn't end there," he says. "You have to check out all the possible options that will help the business grow."

Submarine Garden town's coral treasure

THE WRECKAGE of two Japanese ships, which sank off Barangay Sawang in Lobo, Batangas, during the last days of World War II in 1945, can hardly be seen now. Instead, a submarine-shaped formation of corals has emerged and declared a fish sanctuary.
"We think it's nature that turned something tragic in 1945 into what we now have-the Submarine Garden, a marine paradise and fish sanctuary that remains untouched up to today," said Jojo Marasigan, owner of a resort in Sawang, 36 km east of Batangas City. Divers who have flocked to the Submarine Garden have retrieved only a few remnants of the sunken vessels.
"We found a giant steel anchor about 15 meters from the shore," Marasigan said.
"We are planning to put up that anchor inside the resort and fortify it with concrete. That way, nobody can take it and all our guests can see it on display," he said.
Fish sanctuary
Marasigan said the municipal government declared the Submarine Garden a fish sanctuary two years ago. When the villagers, fishermen and local fisheries officials discovered that the sanctuary attracted more and more fishes, the entire 3-km shoreline and 300 m fronting the shores have been declared aprotected area.
"The people of Lobo are now very much aware of the benefits of protecting the environment," Marasigan said. "Fishermen don't enter the fish sanctuary to catch fish. They stay outside the sanctuary to guard it and do their fishing in other areas."
About 15 meters from the shore, the water is so clear you can see fish swimming, while a big blue starfish lies bathing in the morning sun. Water at knee-deep is also so clear that one can see a seahorse swimming near the corals.
Fronting Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro and nearby Verde Island, the view is dotted by small boats and passenger ships dragging tails of foam.
The beach is not just white sand and corals, as century-old trees. A path through mangrove trees, a footbridge over the Sawang River and the remains of the two sunken ships are more than enough to satisfy any vacationer's curiosity.
Natural museum
As the fish sanctuary has turned into a marine paradise, Marasigan's resort has become a natural museum for endangered animals.
One of the best diving spots is the 13-m Orange Sponge coral mountain that reveals its colorful tip during low tide. Sea turtles still come to lay eggs, while dolphins are seen at least twice a month.
Flying fish jumping in unison is a common sight. At night, luminous planktons light up the water and the underwater garden.
On land, wild cats, cloud rats, palm civets, pugo (quails), labuyo (wild chicken) and migratory birds thrive, as the law forbids hunting in the entire protected area.
Century-old bonsai trees grow in what used to be a coral formation that turned into black rocks below the three hills called the Monte Castillos. The near-extinct Philippine teak trees abound, along with century-old tamarind, talisay, camachile and other fruit-bearing trees.
At the right side of the resort, just after the gate, is a footpath in the mangrove trail where crabs, edible snails and shells are plenty. At the end of the trail is a wooden footbridge crossing the river into Barangay Olo-olo, where a blue-green lagoon awaits.
"When (former) Tourism Secretary (Richard) Dick Gordon came here in 2002, he was so amazed at the resort that he started working out a presidential proclamation to declare Submarine Garden a marine park," Marasigan said.
According to him, his family's plan for the resort is not really to develop it but to retain its natural beauty.
"We're hoping that Submarine Garden would set an example to other coastal towns to protect their seas, their shores and their trees. The Submarine Garden is now Lobo's natural treasure," he said. "If we have succeeded here, other towns can do that, too."

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | June 03, 2004 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino, Lobo, Batangas

Chicken cage maker raises more than poultry.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | June 01, 2003 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
STO. TOMAS, Batangas-Anyone in this province who wants to succeed in the poultry business only need to go to one person.
Even Dr. Miguel Ambal, the biggest poultry raiser in San Jose town, agree.
"Go to Jess Medina and you will have nothing more to ask," Ambal says.
In Barangay San Miguel, Dr. Jess Medina, owner of Jemcy Enterprises, gives the answer in two words: Jess' cages.
Right chicken cage
Known in the province as simply Jess' poultry cage, the steel cage is a product of a 12-month design study that eliminated all the possible problems a poultry raiser would encounter in the business.
"In San Jose, I'm known not just for selling chicken cages, but also for helping the poultry farmer in managing his poultry. But that doesn't end there. I even provide guidance through marketing strategy," Jess says.
San Jose town, which is considered as the egg capital of the province, has the biggest number of poultry raisers in Luzon.
"Seventy percent of all poultry raisers in San Jose are my clients," Jess says. "While in the entire province, 60 percent of the poultry raisers use my cages."
Doctor of animals
A doctor of veterinary medicine with years of experience as resident veterinarian in big poultry farms, Jess discovered the factors that determine the success and failure of the poultry business.
"The wrong practices before were in the wrong way of manure handling that brought discomfort and unnecessary heat, and depleted the necessary ventilation for the chicken," Jess says.
In 1987, he designed the cage that would fit in a poultry building and ensure that the manure is always dry.
"That way, it goes well with the environment and the cages are positioned a lot higher from the ground than the traditional cages," he claims.
Jemcy cages have actually reached the biggest poultry raisers all over the country.
Beside his house in San Miguel, there is a 4,000-head-layer poultry. The only smell one can sniff is that of chicken feed.
The absence of flies is also remarkable.
"The big difference is that aside from being a cage manufacturer, I also use the product in my poultry business. That way, it's easier to know where the error lies," Jess adds, "It also helps me solve the problems faster."
From the 20 layer chickens he started in 1987, he now has 30,000 chickens that lay eggs two to three times a day.
"I used to have 500 grow-outs when I started. Now I have 87,000 heads," Jess adds.
Grow-outs are chickens that are ready to lay eggs and are sold to poultry raisers who don't want to trouble themselves with raising the chicken from chick up.
Business acumen
Jess says his good business acumen was not just developed. He says he learned a lot from his mother.
A son of a former army sergeant, Jess is the second eldest son in a brood of five.
His father died when he was in his second year high school.
From their house in Fort Bonifacio, they transferred to the squatter's area in Bago Bantay, Quezon City. There, the family struggled to make both ends meet.
His mother sold home-cooked food at a small canteen near their house.
That business and his army scholarship helped him finish college.
After finishing Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the Araneta University, now De La Salle University in Malabon, it was his turn to support his other siblings.
Life was getting better until the recession after the Aquino assassination in 1983.
He lost his job as supervisor at the Mr. G farms in San Luis town, Batangas that same year.
With the P3,500 separation pay he got from the company, he bought animal health products that he sold to poultry raisers in the province.
"To save on lunch that I had for free, I stayed at the Elite Enterprises in San Jose town, where I was their part-time veterinarian. That time, every centavo was worth saving."
Life became more difficult when his wife's former boss tried to get his clients with offers of cheaper animal health supplies.
But he worked to replace one client lost with ten more.
Through rain or shine
Rain or shine, he peddled the medicines in far-flung villages.
"Once in Barangay Galamay Amo, San Jose town, the client's poultry farm was five kilometers from the road. If I hired a tricycle, I would have to pay P100 to get there and another P100 to get back. I chose to walk all the way to my client's farm even if it was raining and the flood was knee-deep," Jess says.
He also peddled T-shirts, shorts and jeans in 1986.
"That time, I would go to my clients with T-shirts, shorts, and pants in my left hand, and animal health products in my right hand. That was how dedicated I was to my work," he adds.
Life was too hard then until he met the town's biggest poultry-raiser who lent him money to start the cage business.
"Dr. Ambal bought poultry supplies from me. In turn, I checked on his farm until he asked how he could help me. That time, they used to buy the flooring of their poultry cages from Bulacan. And I was already seeing some defects in those cages," he adds.
Ambal lent him P20,000, which he used to make 60 poultry cages that sold out fast.
From the earnings of the 60 cages the business grew.
"Now I have saturated the entire country," Jess says.
Environment-friendly
The designs ensure the drying of the manure and provide ventilation to the chickens.
"With proper ventilation, the chicken will not feel any discomfort and will lay more and better eggs, and since the cages are higher from the ground where the manure falls, the chicken are not affected by smell and heat from the manure," he says.
Jess' cages come in black iron, treated iron, powder-coated, plastic-coated, lead-coated, electro-plated, and epoxy-coated.
Jess has not yet patented his cages.
"The poultry cages business started in 1987 but I wasn't able to have it patented. I don't think patenting it can really protect me."
An engineer in San Jose even imitated his design, but his imitated business failed because the engineer does not have the expertise of a veterinarian-businessman like Jess who knows every aspect of the poultry raising business.
Fully automated
"Before, making the poultry cages was very difficult because we had to do it manually. The most difficult part was to straighten the wires and cut them, which took a lot of time and energy.
Later, Jess studied the process and was able to design a machine that increased his production from seven kilos of wire per person in one day to 45 kilos.
A year later, he made a better design that now enables a worker to produce 135 kilos of wire per day, which when turned into cages, could house 2,500 chickens a day.
His manufacturing plant is located in his backyard, including the animal health supply laboratory and the poultry house.
"Before I had only two men working with me, now there are a total of 84 people working at the plant and the poultry farms," Jess says.
In the manufacturing plant and even in the farms, most of Jess' workers are transformed men.who used to be near the edge of trouble.
When he employed them in his company, not a day goes by without his sermon and encouragement for them to improve their lives.
"I always tell myself that I was given this good opportunity to be able to help people and transform them into good people," Jess says. "My non-stop sermon to my people everyday is meant to transform them and develop in them the value of hard work and good work. With that, I was rewarded with responsible people who have malasakit (concern) with the business."
"I have this way of telling them in a very diplomatic and easy-to-understand way that this business is not mine alone. God merely uses this business and me to help them and with that they should take care of this business as if it was their own," Jess adds.
In the town, parents of problem youths come to him to transform their troubled sons into responsible men who are able to reach their full potentials.
For Jess and his wife Marcy, the outcome of every project must not only be good for them.
"We make sure that our clients will earn more. That's why, when we deliver the cages, I also see to it that our clients, especially the new ones in the poultry business, will be guided with the right methods."
When he visits one of his poultry farms in San Jose, the workers make sure that he and his car are completely sanitized.
"That's to protect the chickens from any outside germs that anybody who enters could be carrying. That's how dedicated they've become," Jess adds. "In any business, to be successful, there should be dedicated people to run and maintain it.
Jess says, "As a veterinarian, I provide that lifetime guidance to our clients for free, that's why we have developed relationships with our clients."
His family members also help Marcy, who is in-charge of the production department for the cages.
"I handle the quality control, marketing, and delivery, while my wife handles the production department," Jess says.
"At this early I try to involve my three sons in the business. Gradually, I immerse them in the real world of this business and in our development projects to help the out of school youths," he says.
How much has the company earned since 1987, Jess has no idea.
"Our biggest achievement is not measured in monetary value, but in the value of relationships we have developed with our clients all over the country through the years. Our clients are not just friends, they have be come so close, like family members to us," he stresses.

Sugar farmers learn to drub the grubs.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | July 31, 2003 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino, Tuy, Batangas
RESIDENTS of Tuy town in Batangas are fighting back -actually, eating back- to get rid of the "salagubang" (June or toy beetles) that have been wreaking havoc on their sugar cane farms.
Although this way of exterminating the pests proved unfriendly to the discriminating palate of the Batangueno, the town successfully held the first-ever "Salagubang Peste-bal" (June Beetle Festival) on July 24. Farmers from Tuy, Calaca, Balayan, Nasugbu and Calatagan towns joined the festival and feasted on live beetles.
"This is what we call a celebration of the revenge of the sugar cane farmers whose incomes have been depleted by the salagubang infestation," Tuy Mayor Boy Calingasan said.
Since 1940, the town has been losing millions of pesos from the infestation, he added.
Losses
Mention the word salagubang and sugar cane farmers would say Tuy. For many decades, the town holds the record of heaviest salagubang infestation in the province.
The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), a nongovernment organization helping farmers in western Batangas, revealed in a study of the sugarcane industry in the province that Tuy had been losing P40 million to P70 million every cropping year due to beetle infestation.
Dr. Greg Quimio of the National Crop Protection Center of the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, said in a lecture held during the festival that the most destructive stage in the growth of the beetle was its larva period.
"The salagubang larva, or what we call white grub, and what the farmers here call ulalo, lives most of its lifetime in the soil. In its final growth stage, it reaches three to four inches in length, and is equipped with well-developed mandibles that enables it to chew on the roots of the sugar cane," Quimio said.
Grubs
Quimio said the grub could chew even the hardest roots of the sugar cane.
At six to eight months, the larva's root-feeding rampage is considered the most destructive. "In severe infestation, not only the roots but also the base nodes of the sugar cane are eaten by the grubs," Quimio added.
"In those cases, the growth of the plants becomes stunted. Some sugar cane plants lose anchorage and just topple (down). That causes the plant to dry up and die prematurely. In Tuy, we've got severe cases of that every cropping year."
Another study conducted by Dow Agro Sciences, an insecticide company, revealed that under heavy attack, the yield of a six-month-old crop could drop to 60 percent or about 30 tons of sugar cane per hectare, reducing farmers' income to 40 percent.
Adding the cost of efforts to control the grubs, earnings plummet farther to less than 30 percent.
Life cycle
At the end of July, a female beetle lays thousands of eggs on the ground that hatch into white grubs.
During its larva stage from August to December, the white grub feeds on the roots of the sugar cane. By January and February, they bore deeper into the soil by about a meter and form an earthen shell. By March or April, just as the planting season starts, they undergo the pupation stage.
By May or June, when the rainy season starts and the newly planted sugar cane begins to grow, the insect squirms out of its earthen shell and becomes a beetle.
As the beetles are considered a popular delicacy in several provinces in Northern and Central Luzon, the local agriculture office, sugar cane farmers and the PBSP started their festival of revenge.
Gilbert Sebastian, PBSP program officer, said "we were thinking that if we could start that (eating the June beetle) in Batangas, it could be the answer to totally eradicating the pests. Plus, the salagubang could provide farmers with an alternative source of income, viand or pulutan," he added.
The Salagubang Peste-bal included cooking demonstration of Tarlac's famous salagubang recipes like sinangag na salagubang fried beetles, adobong salagubang, salagubang sauteed with tomatoes, chili con salagubang and potato-salagubang omelette.
Cooks Robert Lucas and Johnny Castillo, who hail from Camiling, Tarlac, said their province has actually nine famous salagubang recipes, but they demonstrated only five of them.
"We even have lumpiang (rolled) salagubang, tostadong (toasted) salagubang, paksiw na salagubang, sinigang na salagubang, ginataang (cooked with coconut cream) salagubang and salagubang barbecue," Castillo said. "I have been eating salagubang since I was a little boy and I think that's the reason I'm healthy. Salagubang is rich in protein."
Lucas said that since the people in his village in Camiling started eating the insect, their sugar cane farms became more productive.
Fear factor
The festival also included a pageant for the best salagubang mascot, salagubang wrestling tournament and salagubang flying contest.
Representatives of various farmers' groups and cooperatives joined the contests.
The event also challenged the Batangueno's stomach as part of the program involved the salagubang eating contest.
The first part of the "Fear Factor" challenge involved transferring as many salagubang as the participant's mouth can carry from a basin into an empty container.
Nineteen men and two women joined the contest of eating 20 cooked salagubang and 10 live ones.
For the prize of P5,000, seven elimination round contestants joined. But the contest proved to be too unfriendly for the stomach of some of the contestants as some of them vomited right in the middle of the contest.
The taste
Even Tuy's mayor had a taste of the cooked salagubang.
Trying to evade the people's clamor to see him eat the insect, Calingasan first offered the delicacy to the town hall's department heads.
When a TV crew, complete with cameras focused on him, he, too, ate the salagubang.
Asked about the taste, Calingasan said: "It tastes sour and delicious, and crunchy. Don't worry, it's clean."

Ceramic firm out to battle China tiles.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | July 02, 2005 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
STO. TOMAS, Batangas-For the country's biggest manufacturer of ceramic tiles, having high quality replacement products is the best way to fight the rampant smuggling of China-made ceramic tiles.
"Quality-wise, the smuggled ceramic tiles that come from China fall way below our standards," claimed Eduardo de la Rama, Mariwasa Manufacturing Inc. (MMI) external consultant.
The 41-year-old MMI is the biggest in the Philippines and has installed the longest tile decorating line in Southeast Asia at the plant in Barangay San Antonio of this town.
MMI's plant that sits on a 24-hectare property started operations in 1997.
Raw materials from local sources, such as red clay from Nueva Ecija and lahar from Pampanga, are used to produce world-class ceramic tiles exported to Australia and Southeast Asia.
MMI has pioneered the manufacturing process for vitrified floor tiles, big-size wall tiles and third-fired ceramic tiles.
"Another big advantage we have over smuggled tiles is our availability of replacements. Whenever a tile breaks, we always have a ready replacement with the exact quality of the broken one," De la Rama said.
But like all the members of the Association of Tile Manufacturers of the Philippines, MMI was also affected by the rampant tile smuggling.
Only six months ago, 49 container vans of China-made tiles reportedly arrived at the Batangas port.
Out of the 49 container vans, only 29 had the permit from the Bureau of Customs, but all of them were smuggled out of the port.
The smuggled tiles cost P5 a piece while locally made tiles are priced at P10 each.
"From January to May, the sales of local tile manufacturers went down. It was only this June that sales were able to pick up. Smuggling really affected the local tile industry, but then, when the people who bought the imported tiles discovered that the China-made tiles break and tarnish easily, there was no replacement," De la Rama said. Mei Magsino-Lubis, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

Batanguenos show devotion to Sto. Nino in 9-day festivities.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | January 16, 2003 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino, Batangas City
FOR THE PAST nine days, Batangas City has been alive with celebrations that started with a fluvial procession on Jan. 7 at the Cumintang River to honor the Holy Infant Jesus, more popularly known as Sto. Nino, whose statue is believed to have floated from Cebu to Batangas some 420 years ago.
The festivities, which culminate today, also featured the harana (serenade) and a tribute to the Sto. Nino.
Old folks say their patron saint has been saving the city from bad calamities and misfortune.
For an industrialized city where residents maintain more than four centuries of devotion to the Child Jesus, the returns have been big.
"We celebrate the feast of the Sto. Nino as our way of thanksgiving for the continuous blessings that the city has been getting," Mayor Eduardo Dimacuha said.
"Here in Batangas City, there has never been a big disaster, heinous crime and kidnapping incident," Dimacuha said. "Ours is a peaceful city because of the guidance and blessing of our patron saint."
According to a historical profile of the city, a statue of the Sto. Nino was being transported to Cebu in a ship when bad weather forced the vessel to seek shelter in the coves of Batangan, as what the city was then named when it was still a pueblo (town) because of the huge logs called batang that were found there.
Batangan, in the 1580s, was part of Marcial Goiti's encomienda, a large tract of land granted by the King of Spain to his subjects for meritorious services to the crown.
Singing Te Deum hymns, the vessel's crewmen brought the image of the Holy Infant to the altar of a small church on the shore. It was the site of the old Batangan Catholic church that was first established by a Franciscan friar, Diego Mexico.
The small church, made of bamboo and nipa, was dedicated to the Nuestra Senora de la Immaculada Concepcion.
Soon after, the storm miraculously abated and the image continued its voyage to Cebu. But it never reached its destination.
Batang gas
A few months after the incident, a deaf-mute boy found a statue of the Sto. Nino on a floating batang near the banks of the Calumpang River behind the church. That same time, it was reported in the parish church of Cebu that the image of the Sto. Nino was missing.
When the child gave the statue to the Catholic Church, the officials of both Batangan and Cebu parishes presumed it was the lost image. Both parishes decided that the statue be returned to Cebu.
But strangely, every time the statue was shipped back to Cebu, a storm would suddenly occur and prevent the ship from sailing. After many failed attempts, the church officials and the gobernadorcillo of Cebu agreed to let the image of the Holy Infant stay permanently in Batangan.
According to the historical profile, when the child found the Sto. Nino in the river, the batang log strongly reeked of gas. The people started calling the image "batang gas" and later changed the name of their town to Batangas.
Devotion
As a tribute, Batangas City celebrates the feast of the Sto. Nino every Jan. 16, preceded by nine days of civic and religious rites and festivities.
On the first day of the fiesta, the Sto. Nino ng Batangan was taken to Barangay Wawa for the fluvial parade in the Cumintang River. Choirs from the parishes of the city serenaded the Sto. Nino as the devotees sailed on.
Later, the image was brought to the city's main streets for a procession. This was followed by a novena Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Concepcion.
From the second up to the last day of the celebration, different groups from all sectors of society paid tribute to the patron saint with cultural presentations and dancing of the subli.
Other highlights were a children's art competition, a photo contest, the search for the Binibining Lungsod ng Batangas, battle of the bands, a civic and military parade, and a small band competition.
The celebration ends today with a Mass.

From 'carinderia' to Republic of Cavite.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | December 02, 2002 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino
TRECE MARTIRES CITY-Spanning three generations of first-rate cooks whose passion for good food transcends time and distance, Town's Delight The Caterer has not just conquered the palate of the entire Cavite province, it has even built its own Republic of Cavite.
"The passion for good food started with Mama Cely, my mother, who, for 30 years has been in the food catering business in Cavite," Andrew Pacumio, Town's Delight manager, said.
"Then I followed her footsteps, and then one of my nieces is now also in the business. The passion for good food is in our blood," he added.
The passion for good food, which is in Pacumio's blood, has its extension in Batangas, as the president of its most sought-after caterer-Juan Carlo-The Caterer-engineer Alex del Rosario, is Andrew's first cousin.
"After 30 years in the business, the Republic of Cavite is the ultimate statement of our legacy of serving the good food that Cavitenos have enjoyed for so long now," Pacumio said. "Building this is a combination of three decades of hard work while loving that work, passion for food, and the family's aspiration to come out with the best service in the food catering business."
At the recent opening of the Republic of Cavite, the three generations of chefs, along with the late President Emilio Aguinaldo's descendants and the province's top brass, waved the Philippine flag in front of the masses of
people like a scene from history books.
The only difference is, instead of attacking a Spanish garrison, the people attacked the buffet table, where a festive breakfast awaits.
Carinderia
Town's Delight The Caterer started as a small carinderia in Tanza town in 1972 with Cecilia del Rosario-Pacumio, known in town as Mama Cely, as its cook, marketer and manager.
Mama Cely, a teacher by profession, admitted that her first love is cooking, not teaching.
"First love never dies," she said. "So I decided to concentrate on cooking."
Her husband Josefino Pacumio, who was working abroad at that time, financed her small business.
The small carinderia gained popularity with its good food and artistic presentation and in no time, became a household name in town. In less than five years, it expanded to include catering business and a bakeshop.
Jardin de San Antonio, with a seating capacity of 250 people, was established in Tanza town; followed by Gardenia Cecilia in Naic town, with a seating capacity of 500 people. It was followed by another Gardenia Cecilia in Trece Martires City, with a capacity of 180 people.
On Nov. 18, the Republic of Cavite, with an Aguinaldo ancestral home-inspired design, was inaugurated at the back of the city hall, right at the heart of the city.
"People have always asked me why we put up the Republic of Cavite in Trece Martires City," Pacumio said. "I would always tell them that this city is the heart of Cavite, and its booming now."
Hardwork
But being a manager of the province's biggest catering business is not a piece of cake for Andrew, whose first job was as a social worker in the Smokey Mountain for six years.
An AB Economics graduate from San Beda College and loaded with a master's degree from UP Diliman, he also served as an instructor in Bataan. But like his mother, his first love was also cooking.
"Ten years ago, I decided to manage the business," Pacumio said.
"Like every economist, I treat every project like a mathematical equation. That helped a lot, coupled with hard work, good food and service, the people never forgot the name and by word of mouth, we got free advertisements and referrals," he added.
When Pacumio started managing the business 10 years ago, it boomed to conquer the entire Cavite province and even the greater Manila area.
Pacumio is a two-term director of the Food Caterers Association of the Philippines.
Town's Delight now has a monthly television appearance in a morning show's portion to promote the catering business.
Recently, it catered to the Miss Earth International Costume Competition held at the Casino Filipino in Tagaytay City.
Juggling a booming catering business, Pacumio still conducts lectures on the food service industry to many colleges and universities in Cavite.
"I never got over my fondness for teaching," he said. "I even took my lectures to Town's Delight and trained our people. It's better to get new people to train and mold as it develops employee loyalty. Most of our bakeshop workers and employees have been with us for as long as the Town's Delight lives."
With over 300 workers trained by the human resources department, which Pacumio himself set up to develop the skills of his people, the teacher in him was utilized even in the food business.
But for Pacumio, the best training starts with the family.
"My wife and my mother are both chefs. My father is our consultant. A close cousin is also in the business, and the next generation is also showing good signs of getting into the industry. We're a family of chefs whose biggest
clients are the Cavitenos and the greater Manila area."
Republic of Cavite
"If there is a Republic of the Philippines, and a Republic of Malate, why shouldn't there be a Republic of Cavite?" Pacumio said. "This is actually one of Town's Delight's biggest dream-to make a landmark in Cavite."
According to architect Richie Corcuera who designed the building, the concept of the Republic of Cavite building was to capture the Aguinaldo shrine and to turn the restaurant into a landmark in Cavite's capital city.
The two-story building is patterned after the Aguinaldo mansion in Kawit, Cavite, where the proclamation of Philippine independence took place on June 12, 1898.