RP now has own silk

The Philippines now has a silk it can call its own.

Now popularly called Mindanao Silk, it took its bow in a fashion show middle of last year and later was exhibited at the Ayala Center’s Glorietta 4 and Greenbelt 3.

Mindanao Silk fabrics are woven from pure Philippine silk yarns produced by sericulture farmers in Mindanao in traditional handloom. The silk weavers are mostly female members of the Ayala Beneficiaries Association, Inc., which was made over into ABAI Weavers Multipurpose Cooperative of Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental.

The women and their families were displaced when the domestic airport in Laguindingan was renovated to meet international standards. Ayala Corp. relocated them in the coastal area of Laguindingan while the Ayala Foundation, Inc. helped them find livelihood other than farming.

ABAI members learned handloom through training courses conducted by the DOST-Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTR) headed by Director Carlos Tomboc.

A joint effort will the Misamis Oriental-Cagayan de Oro City Federation of Cooperatives (McFedco) led to the silk project. McFedCo at the time was assisting PTRI-trained sericulture farmers of Claveria, Misamis Oriental, in selling silk cocoons by converting them into silk yarns.

From virtually zero knowledge in silk weaving, 23 of 24 weavers trained produced 5,463.14 meters of silk cloth in 17 months. A weaver now produces an average of two meters of 30-inch silk cloth in a day.

To date, PTRI’s Malu Flores reported, ABAI members weave and dye their silk fabrics. They also have come up with 13 diffe-rent color schemes using natural and synthetic dyes. – RAF