A New Home Industry for Panay (Combined).pdf

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Part of Philippine Educator

extracted text: filed by him through the Commissioner of Civil Serv ice^ specifying clearly his grounds for petitioning and presenting his arguments supporting each ground in an orderly and concise manner. Incidentally, the deci sion of the Civil Service Board of Appeals is still sub ject to modifications and reversions by the President of the Philippines. Another essential information about administrative discipline is that administrative investigations are conducted to rid the Government of undesirable em ployees and not to give relief to the complainants who should merely play the role of government witnesses. On one occasion a complainant said, “My aim is. mainly to inform the proper authorities of the respondent’s act as a violation of the Civil Service Law and not an act that has caused damage to my personal in terests.” But, generally, a complaint is filed only as ' carry-over of a personal conflict between the prospec tive respondent and the prospective complainant. It seems that a wholesome human relationship among each other is the greatest defense for teachers from any future complaints against them. CALIFORNIA ORANGE INT.. S A. 2990 TAFT AVE. EXT., PASAY CITY TEL. 8-12-03 A New Home Industry for Panay By Hermogenes F. Belen T ITTLE DID the people of rural areas in Panay (Iloilo, Antique, Capiz, and Aklan) realize that a few feet below their low-yielding rice and corn crops lay a vast deposit of dormant gold. Lesser still dici they suspect that the white, red, or bluish mud—hard during summer and extremely sticky dur ing rainy days—can be turned to money with little effort. Today, a new home industry is born with a bright prospect of development. This was not a product of mere accident. It was the offshoot of a well-directed technical research program at the Iloilo School of Arts and Trades that was started in July, 1954. Here tofore, this sticky mud was useless to the farmer. To the, potter, it was used only for making the cen tury-old types of cheap banga (drinking jar), Kolon (cooking pot), or ka-ang (flower pot). The research program at the trade school in Iloilo has supplied the missing link—technical know-how and technical knowwhy. It is now possible to transform this vast de posit of clay into usable products like plates, bowls, cups, wash basins, toilet bowls, saucers, decorative bric-a-bracs (flower, vases, wall pockets, small fig urines, ash trays), or electrical insulators. In the market these are known as ceramic wares or plain earthenware, stoneware, or porcelain. The process is simple: prepare the clay, form the ware, fire the raw ware in a kiln, and, finally, glaze the ware. The re sult would be a ceramic ware—may be a plate, elec trical insulator, toilet bowl, or flower vase. Any farmer with average intelligence can easily learn the techniques which have been simplified at the trade school. Complicated chemical formulas have been reduced to simple proportions of clay, silica, and feld spar in terms of weight or volume. We had always believed that China, Japan, Eng land, France and the United States have a monopoly of manufacturing ceramic wares. Little did we dream that we have raw materials which could be utilized for this basic home industry. But that belief is not true any longer. The clay deposits of Panay have been tested and found to be comparable with any clay in the Philippines like those found in the Bicol region, Laguna, Marinduque, Cebu, and in Northern Luzon. Several towns in Iloilo have vast deposits of this raw FEBRUARY, 1958 PAGE 31 material. Lemery, for example, has extensive depo sits of clay, silica, and feldspar—the basic elements needed in making ceramic wares. The towns of Din gle, Sara, Ajuy, Concepcion, Batad, Balasan, Estancia, Carles, Jordan, and Miag-ao have kaolinite clay and silica. Bavas Island off the shores of Estancia has deposits of clay. Dingle has mountains of silica deposits. The beaches of Guimaras Island just ac ross the channel from Iloilo City are covered with quartz sand. Alimodian, which is only thirty-five minutes’ ride from Iloilo City, has a vast deposit of feldspar—a critical ingredient in the construction of high grade porcelain wares. Pandan a town in northern Antique, has one of the best deposits ’ of clay found. Many towns of the newly-created prov ince of Aklan — Libacao, Banga, Kalibo, Ibajay, Ma lay and the small islands at the northern tip of the province — have also deposits of clay in varying qualities. Hibao-an — a pottery district just at the northern periphery of Iloilo City — also has deposits of low-grade clay. Red clay is widely distributed in varying quantities throughout Panay Island. The researches conducted by Mr. Federico F. Cos tales and his students at the Iloilo School of Arts and Trades have brought out one fundamental fact— that the clay of Panay is strong, easy to fashion into ceramic wares, and highly adaptable to the produc tion of any kind of ceramic wares from flower vases to electrical insulators. Several school teachers and laymen of West Visayas have frequented the labora tories of the trade school at Iloilo in their enthusiasm and desire to know more about this money-making new home industry. The trade school has patiently shown the simple and practical way. A new wood-fired kiln has just been recently constructed at the campus of the Iloilo School of Arts and Trades. This kiln — the first successful one if its kind in Panay — has a firing chamber of about 350 cubic feet. It could contain about one thousand ordinary-sized plates at one firing. It could generate heat to A temperature as high as 2700° F in 35 hours using ordinary firewood. Under the technical help of the trade school, the town of Miagao — a few kilometers west of Iloilo City — has also constructed a small kiln of this type. A project at the Boys Town in Guimaras Island is also being fast completed. Other towns like Leganes, Balasan, Dingle, Pototan have shown great interest in the construction of small wood-fired community kilns. Interest has also been shown by the people and lead ers of Antique, Capiz, Aklan, and Negros Occidental. With the completion of the big wood-fired kiln, the Iloilo School of Arts and Trades has taken* the lead to make refractory bricks to supply the needs of rural towns. This is a positive move to cut down the excessive price of refractory bricks imported from foreign countries. All materials needed in the manufacture of ceramic wares are found in Panay. The processing of clay, silica, and feldspar and the compounding of glazes have also been simplified by the trade school. The few samples of work done by the students can com pare favorably with any imported ware. This is at tributed to the simple and practical research program of the trade school. The initial investment for starting a small home industry in ceramics is as low as five hundred pesos with, of course, a two-year foundation of skill training and laboratory work. With the low-priced refractory bricks being produced at the Iloilo School of Arts and Trades, the growth of this new home industry in Panay is bright. We do hope that the publication of the result of this three-year old research program of the Iloilo School of Arts and Trades will encourage other schools to help in the development of the young home industry. It is hoped, too, that the government can put up a plant in Iloilo for the mass processing of clay, silica, and feldspar to supply the needs of the people. The processing plant is the vital key to the growth of this new home industry. ’ PAGE 32 f THE PHILIPPINE EDUCATOR
Date: 1958
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