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BURGOS,
La Union—Look at any tourist coming from a holiday from
Baguio City
and, chances are, they’re lugging those ubiquitous “three
for P100” brooms.
These
trusty household fixtures have always been on top of every
tourist’s pasalubong list, with the items
proclaiming to one and all that these products are, well,
Baguio-made.
But this
demand for
Baguio brooms has actually spurred a livelihood for farmers and
craftsmen in nearby
Burgos,
La Union, where the raw materials are sourced and the
products hand-made.
For years,
soft brooms which are made out of tiger grass (locally
known as boyboy) are grown and produced on the
hillsides of this upland town. Burgos town lies at the
easternmost of the province of La Union, dissected by the
snake-like Naguilian Road, and is the first town of the
province to be reached from Baguio City in about 40 to 45
minutes.
“Tiger-grass farming and soft broom-making has been a
livelihood venture for the people of Burgos since the
’60s. We are proud of the industry that continuously
sustains our families,” said Florina de los Reyes,
agricultural technologist of Burgos.
Local
industry
Burgos
is considered the home of the original and quality soft
brooms, de los Reyes said.
In early
times, people discovered the usefulness of tiger grass
when they bundled the inflorescence (flower cluster) and
used this to sweep their floors. They made these into
brooms and traded them with lowlanders. Finding it
profitable, they eventually started cultivating the grass
to supply the demand for tiger-grass brooms.
Up to this
day, farmers have been planting tiger grass in Burgos and
Bagulin towns in La Union, and in some parts of Sablan and
Tuba towns in Benguet. But it is Burgos that is considered
the home of the original and quality soft brooms.
The time
of flowering usually occurs between December and January
and harvesting is done from February to early April. It is
a bushy plant with stalks that grow from one to two meters
high.
To promote
the town’s broom-making industry, de los Reyes said they
have been celebrating the Boyboy Festival every February.
Hoping for
a broom boom
Burgos
town has a total of 400 hectares of tiger-grass farms,
considered by over 650 farmers as one of their main
sources of income aside from planting pineapple, banana
and other tropical fruits and root crops.
While
broom-making is one of the oldest industries in this
upland town, it has not grown in terms of status as a
major and sustainable income-earner.
“The
industry has provided employment as well as sustained our
families for many years, but we are hoping for bigger
profits every year,” said farmer and broom maker Carolina
Dangpilen, 51.
Dangpilen,
president of the broom makers’ group the Barangay Bilis
Chapter of the La Union Vibrant Women’s Association,
admits that one contributing factor is that most broom
makers are engaged in the traditional way, and technology
to enhance the production capability of makers has not
been upgraded much.
“Majority
of us wanted to upgrade our skills to make more profit.
Although the local government has been supportive to us,
we still need more assistance to sustain our broom
industry,” Dangpilen lamented.
Dangpilen
has been in the industry for more than 30 years now. She
started her home-based business for only P300. She and her
husband, a farmer, were able to make ends meet and raised
their two children by making brooms.
In 2006
Dangpilen was one of the original broom makers who
introduced the colored soft brooms. For a loan of P3,000,
she was able to make her first 20 colored brooms.
“Our town
wanted to reinvent the natural tiger-grass broom so we
learned how to make the colored broom. It was a big hit
not only to local tourists but also to foreigners,” she
said.
Dangpilen
said the colored soft broom is much more expensive than
the natural tiger-grass broom because of its
labor-intensive production and the materials being used.
Colored brooms are sold for P100 each, while the natural
ones are sold for P35 to P40 each.
She said
these durable brooms are colored with nontoxic dyes (orange,yellow,
green and pink) and crafted one at a time for almost one
hour. So far, Dangpilen has produced 125 colored soft
brooms for this year.
With the
colored brooms which come also in small sizes, orders are
now coming from as far as the
United States,
she said.
“Although
the town is still in its early stage of promoting them, we
hope that our business will soon be as colorful as these
brooms,” Dangpilen said.
Like
Dangpilen, farmer and businessman Ben Coilan, 38, said his
family has been in the broom-making business since the
early ’70s. He was inspired by his father to pursue the
business at the early age of 15.
While
Coilan appreciated the handiwork and craftsmanship
involved in the process, and the beauty and durability of
the final product, there was, is and always will be
something even more special about the brooms—their past.
“It’s not
just the broom,” said Coilan, “it’s the history behind the
brooms. Most of the people here have stories to tell.” He
cites himself as an example: “I grew up seeing my family
live with this grass.”
In
addition to broom-making, Coilan has been selling his
tiger-grass brooms from his shop in
Baguio City and online.
Orders come from as far as the
United States,
Australia and some Asian countries. Locally, Coilan
supplies tiger-grass brooms to
Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan and in the Bicol region. The average
volume of brooms in each delivery is around 300 to 400
brooms.
While
income from broom-making is “unpredictable,” Coilan said
he will not leave the business. Instead, he will augment
his income through his sari-sari store and also plant root
crops.
“This has
been our source of livelihood for years, and we survived.
It is not that profitable but we will always strive to
uplift the lives of local farmers and broom makers here,”
Coilan said.
Perhaps,
every broom maker in this town hopes for a clean sweep
from the broom industry. | 
