University of Antique promotes bamboo craft

SAN JOSE, Antique – The University of Antique ( UA), the only state university in the province and operates a bamboo center, will adopt barangays to boost bamboo craft projects.

Dr. Nelly Mistio, UA Project Component Leader of the Bamboo Crafts and Furniture Facility of the Bamboo Center, said they will be adopting the barangays of Sibalom, Tibiao, Tobias Fornier, and those in other municipalities of the province to be their production partners.

“We will also be deploying to the municipalities some equipment of the Bamboo

Center so that the barangaybased bamboo crafters would be able to use it,” she said.

Mistio said adopting a village is their way to boost the center’s production and at the same time for UA to provide a livelihood for the people engaged in bamboo crafting.

UA is a recipient of P14 million worth of equipment from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through its Shared Service Facility (SSF).

The university will also provide training for the bamboo crafters so they would be able to help supply orders.

“Since we have students taking up architecture in the university, they will be asked to make unique designs for the engineered bamboo furniture and other crafts that the UA Bamboo Center will be producing with our partners,” Mistio said.

UA intends to sell their products not only within the province but even export them in the future with the bamboo crafters getting proceeds from their products.

Meanwhi l e, bamboo crafter Francisco Eguiso, president of the Tobias Fornier Bamboocrafters Association, said that they looked forward to partnering with UA which has state-of-the-art equipment that can boost their livelihood.

“Bamboo craft had been my source of living ever since,” Eguiso said in an interview after he held a skill demonstration on April 28 at the trade and tourism fair that runs until May 15 at the newly renovated old capitol building in San Jose de Buenavista.

He said that without the necessary equipment such as cutting and drying of bamboo it takes them almost half a day to make only one or two baskets which they could sell for a price ranging from P50 to P150 each depending on the size.