Sometime in 1960, during Papa’s train ride from Loctugan, Capiz to Iloilo City, he noticed a pile of cigarette cartons owned by a woman. Papa engaged her in a conversation to the cartons. The woman, Mrs. Asuncion Arce, mentioned that the carton’s contents were abaca slippers from Loctugan to be shipped to a certain Mrs. Irene Murphy of Michigan, U.S.A. Mrs. Arce gave Papa the address in case he, too, was interested in supplying handicrafts to her buyer.
We were so excited when Papa broke to news to me about this possible enterprise that can help our family financially. We communicated with Mrs. Murphy and sent her samples of the products she needed. Fortunately, she was impressed with our workmanship that she gave us a trial order.
We may have delighted Mrs. Murphy and her customers such that the volume of our orders and the variety of products has steadily increased. I have to look for suppliers – first from the vendors at the Kalibo Public Market. Eventually, I would expand my sources of materials: sinamay from Malinao, Makato and Ibajay; braids from Tangalan and Lezo, raffia from Bay-ang and Nalook. It became a burgeoning family affair with Papa and Aloys handling the export papers and financing in Manila; Aida and Grazia helping checking the quality of our products, and Bavi our counter and part-time packer. Guidon was still too small to help.
JIC Enterprises, the name we gave to the business, would continue operating for more than a decade until our main customer, Mrs. Murphy, retired from the business. We still continued with the handicraft business, albeit on a smaller scale.
The handicraft business helped us a great deal financially, enabling us to send our children to good schools, helped us acquire some farm land, and left some money in the bank.
In 1970, Papa and I were looking for a new business venture. In consultation with our son Aloysius, we decided to open a rural bank in my hometown of Malinao. I still remember the day in 1950s when we first approached a bank in Kalibo for a loan so we can send our elder children to school, and we were turned down. Maybe we were too small for the bank, or they thought we did not have the capacity to pay. I thought that, if we have a rural bank, we can help many people – farmers, teachers, small business and ordinary families.
We presented our plan to our relatives – the Igharas, Icamina and Yatar families – and they agreed to join in our venture. Our prayers were granted when our group was given the license to operate a rural bank. On October 15, 1970, the Rural Bank of Malinao (Aklan), Inc. opened its doors to serve the public.