Tambuling Batangas Publication March 06-12, 2019 Issue | Page 5

OPINYON
March 6-12, 2019
DepEd, outstanding teachers
receive award at Metrobank
Foundation’s 40th anniversary
PASAY CITY -- Secretary
Leonor
Magtolis
Briones
received
a
Partner
in
Empowerment, Advocacy, and
Commitment to Excellence
(PEACE) trophy awarded to
the Department of Education
(DepEd) by the Metrobank
Foundation,
Inc.
(MBFI)
during its 40thanniversary
celebration at the Le Pavillon,
Metropolitan Park, Pasay City
on February 21.

The MBFI bestows
the PEACE recognition to its
institutional partners from the
government, non-government
and socio-civic organizations,
media, academe, and business.
DepEd consistently supports
the various programs of the
MBFI including the Search
for Outstanding Filipinos,
M e t r o b a n k - M TA P - D e p E d
Math Challenge (MMC), and
the National Teachers’ Month
(NTM) and National Teachers’
Day (NTD) celebrations.
“ M e t r o b a n k
Foundation blazed the trail in
giving recognition to exemplary
men and women. They are
indeed an invaluable partner
in the realization of our goal
to deliver quality, accessible,
relevant, and liberating basic
education,” Briones shared.
Outstanding educators
Meanwhile,
four
A ‘dragon’ lady soars high
LAOAG CITY — As a trailblazer
in the Philippines’ dragon fruit
industry, multi-awarded farmer-
entrepreneur Edita Dacuycuy is
unstoppable even at 73 years old.
Just when everybody is already
asleep, this hardworking widow
and mom of four may be up
thinking or experimenting on
something. Dacuycuy knows
what she wants and she works
hard to make it happen. She never
quits even when others did not
believe in her idea at first.

A jack-of-all-trades — a
psychologist, manager, architect,
engineer, farmer, scientist, and
a great cook rolled into one —
Nanay Edita continues to defy the
odds and win.

Three of her children
with the late Rodolfo Dacuycuy
are now successful professionals
— a physical therapist based in the
United States, a pediatrician with
a private clinic in Pasuquin, Ilocos
Norte, and a communications and
arts expert who helps her manage
the business. The fourth, Kaye,
was born with cerebral palsy.

As a mom, she only
wants the best for her children.
In her search for things to ease
her special daughter’s pain and
suffering, she discovered a little
known fruit from the cactus
family called “pitaya” or dragon
fruit.

As a mom, she only
wants the best for her children.
In her search for things to ease
her special daughter’s pain and
suffering, she discovered a little
known fruit from the cactus
family called “pitaya” or dragon
fruit.

She shared that a friend
from
Macau
recommended
dragon fruit to Nanay Edita
to help relieve her daughter’s
frequent constipation, which is
common among cerebral palsy
patients.

After witnessing its
positive effect on her daughter’s
condition, the Dacuycuy family
decided to grow the fruit in
their backyard in Poblacion 2,
Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte back in
2005.

She recalled that when
neighbors asked them what they
were doing, they never told them
they were planting dragon fruit.

“We were not sure then
if what we were planting would
really bear fruit,” Dacuycuy said.
“Others may laugh at us once
they know that what we were
doing was simply trial and error.”
Early beginnings

Dacuycuy’s quest to
try something new led her to
use the Internet to discover
more about the dragon fruit and
establish linkage with experts
here and abroad. She even sent
her daughter to meet with dragon
fruit growers in Thailand to learn
how to cultivate the fruit.

Dragon fruit is popularly
known in South America and
is also cultivated in Vietnam,
Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

It gave the whole family
so much joy when the cactus vine
started flowering and bearing
fruits. It inspired them to plant
more dragon fruits.

But before they went
large-scale, they first consulted
experts of the Department of
Agriculture and other government
research agencies, such as the
Department of Science and
Technology and the Mariano
Marcos State University.
Farm tourism, education site

Now, the Dacuycuy-
owned REFMAD Farms in
Barangay Paayas, Burgos, Ilocos
Norte, the first organic dragon
fruit plantation in the northern
Philippines, has expanded to
about 13 hectares and continues
to expand.

The dragon fruit farm is
one of the leading farm tourism
and education sites in northern
Philippines as it continues to
develop more product lines out of
the fruit.

Hundreds of tourists
and plant enthusiasts visit the
farm to enjoy their best-selling
products, such as dragon fruit ice
cream, tea, sandwich, shanghai,
macaroons, cookies, jam, vinegar
and at least four variants of fruit
DepEd teachers and officials—
who were all awardees of
the Metrobank Search for
Outstanding Teachers—were
also conferred with the Award
for Continuing Excellence
and Service (ACES) for their
sustained outstanding service
in the performance of their
profession, as well as their
substantive
contributions
to
their
institution
and
communities.
These
include
Lynn Padillo, Chief of the
Curriculum
Implementation
Division in Naga City Division;
Jesus Insilada, principal of
Caninguan
National
High
School in Calinog, Iloilo;
Estrelita Peña, principal of
Francisco Ramos National
High School in Zamboanga
Sibugay; and Marivi L. Castro,
Master Teacher from General
Santos City SPED Integrated
School.

Padillo’s
exemplary accomplishments include the
development of modules which
were replicated and adopted by
teachers nationwide. Insilada,
meanwhile, is dubbed as Iloilo’s
culture advocate who employs
culture-based
teaching,
and advocates the rights of
indigenous
peoples.
Peña
championed the Department’s
Drop-out Reduction Program,
while Castro inculcated a
culture of reading in the
classroom, primarily through
her Read-Aloud Day initiative.

“Forty
years
and
hundreds
of
meaningful
collaborations later, hope has
not waned; rather it persists
with tenacity that the goals
we have set will be realized.
We look forward to stronger
collaboration
and
broader
spaces
for
multi-sectoral
involvement of generations to
come,” MBFI president Aniceto
Sobrepeña stated. (DepEd)
wine. Coffee lovers can also have
a sip of their exotic dragon fruit
coffee, which comes in strong,
mild and mocha flavors.

After reaping numerous
local, national and international
awards,
REFMAD
Farms
continues to lead the way as a
science-and-technology-based
farm, where new innovations,
such as zero-waste management
practices, are shared to other
farmers.

To
maximize
the
potentials of dragon fruit, which
she calls the “vine of life,”
Dacuycuy envisions building a
dragon fruit winery in Luzon,
which would require about 50
or more hectares of dragon fruit
plantation.

Asked what drives
her passion in the industry,
she beamed and said, “Loving
what you do and sharing what
you have, give you the greatest
pleasure and meaning in life.”

“Failures in the course
of our endeavors serve as our
stimulus to work deeper on ideas
and skills putting all together for an efficient, workable and
adoptable process. These are
innovations that cater to our
needs and can be enjoyed by most
— something that can be applied
in our everyday lives, irrespective
of our status, gender and religion,
and it would certainly bring
about a brighter future both for
our family and our country,” she
added.

Aside from the insurance
firm that Nanay Edita has been
managing for a long time, the
Dacuycuy family used to venture
in the garlic trade and all other
crops known in Ilocos Norte.

“They are (a) humble
and hardworking people. They
tried everything in business and it
was only dragon fruit that made
very successful,” a family friend
shared.

Dacuycuy’s desire to
share the technology to others did
not only increase her net worth,
but it also gave employment
opportunities to rural families
who helped her and other farmers
whom she inspired to dream big
and soar high — like a dragon.
Multi-awarded farmer-entrepreneur Edita Dacuycuy is unstoppable even at 73 years old.