8
. BUSINESSWEEK MINDANAO
TRAVERSING THE TOURISM HIGHWAY
More about one town one product By: PED T. QUIAMJOT
ONE of the unexplored small enterprises that have not been given importance in Mindanao is the footwear industry for the need of more than 25 million Mindanaons and to the other 67million Filipinos. Many of the shoes and footwear that are displayed and sold in the malls or the local stalls are imported brand coming from the People’s Republic of China. Others are under foreign manufacturing licenses that are either made in Vietnam or Malaysia. The same with the second hand shoes peddled by hawkers at the “ukay-ukay” stores are Hongkong if not Korean made. How did this disparity of free trade and importation manage to slip in our country vis-avis to our exports? Why were the importations of used and second hand shoes allowed by the Bureau of Customs? This could be the primary reason why the Philippine shoe products from the 20 or more Marikina manufacturers are losing its
competitiveness against the imported footwear flooding the local market? The provinces of Masbate and Bukidnon have abundant source of rawhide leather coming from the cattle industries of these regions. High quality material can also be produced from the skins of crocodiles cultured in the Farms of Puerto Princesa and the Crocodile Farm of Davao City. Various livestock industries in the Philippines have the capacity for the rawhide materials. Goat skins can be made into fine leather but we like to cook and eat them instead as “Papaitan”. We have many local designers that have earned accolades in the fashion scenes abroad yet Philippine shoe products are unheard in the international fashion scene. During the early 80’s when the former First Lady Imelda Marcos used to order dozens of shoes from the local Marikina producers to be worn for her countless trips abroad. She was widely criticized for her extravagance
and branded as “Imeldefic”. Few took credits that she was advertising and promoting Philippine made foot wears abroad. Nobody took notice that when the Philippine Trade Center was opened in New York located at the famous World Trade Center Building many Philippine shoe products were prominently leveled and displayed. The Philippine Trade exhibits has long ceased and closed before the World Trade Center was bombed and destroyed in the famous 911 incident. The footwear industry is one of the most important economic activities next to food and clothing. People moved and travel with all types of shoes and footwear’s in their lifetime. Man can survive not to have a luxury vehicle or an Armani suite but he may not do without shoes. We provide our children a minimum of three types of foot wears a year for their safety and comfort. The same with the pragmatic thinking of an average Filipino to own the basic 3 foot wears, of a slipper, a leather shoes and an athletic shoes to as far as our indigenous brothers who lives in the mountains of Compostela Valley and the Igorots of Banue. While travelling around the major cities of Mindanao, it came to the reality of our economics that
we have not been able to produce a single shoe manufacturing plant in our region to deliver the 75 million pairs of footwear worn by more than 25 million Mindanaons. It is a dismal failure that the one town one product encouraged by the government is not working in the shoe-manufacturing sector in our country. Do we lack investors to explore its development? Or the Board of Investments has forgotten to promote or encourage shoe manufacturing in Mindanao, a reason many prefer instead to wear the imported shoes associated with the tongue twisting foreign brands? With the BOI mandate to promote bilateral trade pacts with the free economic enterprise worldwide, expanding the one town one product in Mindanao may need the BOI endorsement for the possibility of a shoe brand to be manufactured at the Phividec industrial estate in Misamis Oriental Many Economic Zones in this country were created and funded by the government to pump prime the manufacturing sector. Business locators were granted tax incentives to reduce the cost of doing business and be competitive in the export market. Filipino entrepreneurs as it appears are on the top list for lending support by government banking institutions to raise capital.