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| Dela Cruz House of Piña in Kalibo, Aklan |
Folded Barong Tagalogs kept in clear plastic wrappers, embroidered fabrics, handwoven bags, wallets, multipurpose baskets, tabletop accessories such as coasters, trays and placemats are neatly stacked in shelves that line the corners of what must be a former living room.
When it started to drizzle during a late afternoon tour around Kalibo, capital of Aklan province, we took shelter on this two-story modern house whose owners had apparently turned it into a product showroom.
On the corner that leads to the kitchen, a traditional handloom on display is a conversation piece. It was with these wooden contraptions—the looms that turn piña fibers (extracted from the pineapple plant) into a fine, diaphanous fabric—that the Dela Cruz House of Piña, a family-run business, was built upon.
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| Traditional handloom |
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| Piña-jusi cloth |
Rhodora Dela Cruz-Sulangi, the current owner, took over the business from her mother, Susima, who was reputed as Aklan’s “Mother of Piña” for striving to keep piña weaving, the province’s oldest industry, alive.
In the mid-1980s, Susima organized the piña weavers in Kalibo and used her home as the office, production site and warehouse for the textiles. Ever since, the production of piña cloth has been community-based and traditional—from fiber extraction to weaving the end product.
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When Rhodora assumed control in 1992, she expanded the enterprise, adding handwoven items made from dried nito (Lygodium circinatum), an indigenous fern, into their product line.
The piña cloth and nito items had both captured a global niche market. Their nito tabletop products are exported to the United States, while the piña textiles have hooked up top couturiers here and abroad. Locally, the Dela Cruz brand is retailed through Balikbayan Handicrafts and SM’s Kultura Filipino stores.
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| Nito products |
The embroiderers of Lumban in Laguna, sought-after by the elite for their barong and baro’t saya, source exquisite piña cloth from the weavers of Kalibo. Like the piña weaving of Aklan, Lumban’s barong making is a centuries-old industry that traces its origin back to the Spanish colonial period. Since 2018, stakeholders have made efforts in a bid to include Aklan’s weaving culture into the UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
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| Abaca footwears |
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| Wallets made from abaca |
The Dela Cruz House of Piña proved that keeping and putting a premium in tradition can go with globalization. Their success story was among the MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) featured in Sikap: Sipag at Abilidad ng Pilipino, a coffee table book released by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 2017.
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| DTI cofee table book featuring Dela Cruz House of Piña |
Apart from the nito items and the premium fabrics embellished with intricate calado (hand embroidery), the Dela Cruz brand also includes fine pieces made from abaca, yet another plant that abounds in the region and is harvested for its fiber.
Before leaving, I grab one of the abaca beverage coasters as a souvenir—a nice addition to my collection of things produced out of indigenous materials.
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| Product showroom |
Dela Cruz House of Piña
Address:#81 New Buswang, Kalibo, Aklan
Entrance Fee: FREE
Contact No.: (036) 262 3267 / (036) 268 9638
Email: dchouseofpina@gmail.com
This is a portion of an article originally published in the July 2024 issue of Boracay Sun News (with some minor revisions).
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DJ Rivera is an I.T. professional, entrepreneur, travel blogger, writer and the online publisher of PinoyTravelogue.com based in Rizal province, Philippines. Click here to know more.
