Senator Cynthia A. Villar has asked her colleagues in the Senate to rally behind her bill making Catanduanes in the Bicol Region as "Abaca Capital of the Philippimes."
This after Villar, chairwoman of the Senate Food, Agriculture and Agrarian Reform committee, presented for approval Committee Report No. 272 on Senate Bill No. 1978, taking into consideration H.B No. 6149), entitled, “An Act Declaring the Province of Catanduanes as the Abaca Capital of the Philippines.”
"I call for everyone’s enthusiasm and cooperation so that our abaca industry will grow even more better. The Philippines has long been known to be the leading producer of abaca for several years now," said Villar.
She noted that Catanduanes Province leads the highest production in the country with 31.72 percent contribution in the country’s abaca production in 2020; 33.74 percent in 2019 and 33.37 percent in 2018.
The senator said Catanduanes accounts for more than 80 percent of Bicol regions’ production, with at least 21,500 hectares of land dedicated to abaca planting.
"Farming is one of the major livelihoods in the Philippines and abaca farming is the source of livelihood of about 200,000 farming families in 56 provinces in the Philippines," she said.
The Philippines dominates the global abaca trade as the country supplies about 87.5 percent of the world’s abaca fiber requirements, with Ecuador and Costa Rica, sharing the remaining 12.5 percent as of 2016.
"Through this bill that I am sponsoring, I wish to celebrate the hard work and perseverance of our abaca farmers in Catanduanes, who despite experiencing the strongest typhoons on a yearly basis remain strong and continue to persevere," Villar said.
"To recognize the hardship and efforts of our abaca farmers from Catanduanes, and for them to serve as inspiration to more farmers in the country, I call on my colleagues to support this measure," she stated.
Touted by the United Nations as a “future fiber,” Villar said abaca is mostly used in paper products, but it also has a long history in textiles.
For centuries, abaca has been used by the Filipinos as a textile fiber, for clothing, for carrying cloths, for rope and string, and for fishing nets.
Considered as one of the “strongest natural fiber in the world,” it is currently being used for ‘soft’ application in the automotive industry as a filling material for bolster and interior trim parts. Even Mercedes Benz has used a mixture of abaca yarn in its automobile parts.
"According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Abaca fibers are considered the best replacement for glass fibers as a strengthening agent in multiple automotive parts. It can reduce the weight of automotive parts and facilitates more environment-friendly production and recycling of parts," said Villar.
Aside from its various uses due to its superior strength, she said the abaca fiber also helps meet the growing demand for environment-friendly material, eliminating the use of plastics and replacing them with natural fiber materials.