Mindanao silk

By Malu A. Flores
MediaCore, PTRI

Most Filipinos probably only know of silk made from China or Thailand.  But there is now silk made in the Philippines. 

Introduced to the local fashion scene as Mindanao silk last June in a fashion show and later exhibited at the Ayala Center's Glorietta 4 and Greenbelt 3, the fabrics glowed. 

Mindanao silk fabrics are woven from pure Philippine silk yarns produced by sericulture farmers in Mindanao on traditional handloom.   The silk weavers are mostly female members of Ayala Beneficiaries Association, Inc., which was made over into ABAI Weavers Multi-purpose 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 Corporation relocated them in the coastal area of Laguindingan.  The Ayala Foundation Inc., the corporate development arm of the Ayala Group of companies helped them in finding livelihood other than farming. 

ABAI members learned handloom weaving through training courses conducted by the Philippine Textile Research Institute, an agency of the Department of Science and Technology. 

A collaborative effort with Misamis Oriental-Cagayan De Oro City Federation of Cooperatives or McFedCo led to the silk project.   McFedCo at the time was assisting the PTRI-trained sericulture farmers of Claveria, Misamis Oriental in selling silk cocoons by converting them into silk yarns.  

Women beneficiaries in the affected barangays of Moog, San Isidro, and Tubajon entered into partnership with the federation in silk fabrics production.  The vision was to produce Mindanao Silk that will be synonymous with Laguindingan.

To enhance the weaver's capability, PTRI provided training on advance handloom weaving, taught degumming technology, dyeing with synthetic or natural dyes, and hand spinning.   PTRI also converted some of the group's two-harness into four-harness handloom.

From virtually zero knowledge in silk weaving, 23 of 24 weavers trained produced a total of 5,463.14 meters of silk cloth over 17 months or from July 2001 to November 2002.  A weaver now produces an average of two meters of 30-inch width silk cloth in a day. 

With gross income of P300 per day for two meters of fabric, other family members including males of ABAI beneficiaries became interested to learn weaving.  They were trained with the help of PTRI technologists. 

To date, ABAI members weave and dye their silk fabrics.  They also came up with 13 different color schemes using natural and synthetic dyes.