It was a glorious 20 years for Rurungan Sa Tubod Foundation, Inc, the only textile and fabric manufacturer in the province of Palawan, that introduce the now famous Tepina, a unique kind of pineapple silk product that is widely used in making modern Filipiniana and other formal dresses.
The 20 years celebration was held at the Rurungan sanctuary in Abanico road last Sept 15 dubbed as Rurungan Market in partnership with Binhi Organic Market Project, the simple affair highlights the graduation of the new batch of weavers, mostly women from different communities in the City.
“For the mainland Palawan we didn’t have a weaving industry, so we were wearing bark, we are trading with the Chinese, so when we came in 20 years ago we want to introduce a livelihood project similar to making soaps, like we want to make products, and there was no cultural background behind us.” Rosal Lim, Manager of Rurungan told us.
Most of its livelihood beneficiaries are women from local fishing and farming communities that can have an additional income if there are no catch or harvest to gain from, recently the foundation receives a huge grant from Telus Philippines Community board, to extend to more people this type of income source project.
RSTF has branches in other textiles and fabric making, aside from Tepina they are also producing cloth made from abacca, cotton and silk, and other raw materials readily available in the market, from fabrics they now have selections of bags, baskets and other accessories.
“We focus mostly on bringing the product out, so we were exporting, were working with designers, we market in Manila for formal wear and other events. And recently we decided to focus globally, and make sure the Palawenyos knew what was going on in Palawan, this project is so down low, now we’re taking steps in order to make the people aware of what we do and who we are.” Lim added.
Rurungan products in Palawan are available at Kalui Restaurant, Hue Hotel and in Lio El Nido, you can follow their Facebook page for more updates.
