Pulling Bicol up from poverty with coco fiber ropes
By Ralph Fajardo
In the early 90s, when the then dean of Bicol University’s College of Agriculture, Dr. Justino Arboleda, first heard of a report naming Bicol as the second poorest province in the Philippines, he was incredulous. “I could not believe it! How could Bicol be the second poorest province?” he asked. “We are so rich in coconut trees, the tree of life itself.”