Successful Aklan OTOP Congress

by TERENCE T. TORIANO

Aklan’s 1st One Town One Product (OTOP) Congress proved successful despite the transport strike that prevented some invited guests from other towns in Aklan to attend the event at the Gov. Corazon Cabagnot Memorial Tourism and Training Center, Buswang Old, Kalibo last week.

DTI Assistant Secretary Ma. Theresa Pelayo-Ty, the daughter of Candaba, Pampanga’s Mayor Jerry Pelayo, graced the occasion as Keynote Speaker. She cited "OTOP as a very effective tool in terms of job generation and entrepreneurship."

Kalibo’s loomwoven products is deemed as a regional model for the OTOP Program and it is continuously being show-cased at the Kalibo Ati-Atihan Product Showcase during the Ati-Atihan Festival every January. It has a recorded total industry workforce of 9,893 composed of farmers, scrapers, knotters, weavers/warpers, embroiderers, sewers / handpainters / craftmakers / twiners. These do not include manage-ment and marketing staff as of December 2008.

Since 2005 to the first half of 2009, DTI reported Aklan’s domestic sales of its OTOP products to nearly 200 million pesos, while its export sales reached $75,563.

Kalibo Mayor Raymar Rebaldo underscored the role of the loomweaving industry in Kalibo, being instrumental in easing down the problem of unemployment and the promotion of its culture through an OTOP that represent the very tradition of the Kalibonhons. /MP