spot_img
28.1 C
Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Atis

- Advertisement -

The past week was quite hectic for us.  There were a lot of ongoing activities focused on Philippine—Taiwan relations. 

At the Manila Hotel’s ballroom, the Taiwan aquaculture technology industry presented its capabilities at aquaculture productivity enhancement to Filipinos in the saltwater and freshwater fishing business.  More than a hundred Filipino companies from all over the country, as far as Zamboanga and Saranggani in the south  participated.

At the SMX Convention Center and the Mall of Asia, a Taiwan Excellence exhibit was presented, from small cameras made of paper to the latest bicycles (Taiwan is the world’s biggest manufacturer of bicycles) and motorbikes, to medical instruments using the latest technology.

 Meanwhile, in another part of town, scientists from our DoST sat down with Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology to further their cooperation on scientific and applied research from cooperation on volcanology, ocean, typhoon and earthquakes (VOTE) which is crucial to disaster reduction, since both countries are prone to natural calamities such as these, to strengthening graduate program exchanges in these oft-neglected but very important aspect of our lives.

A Philippine-Taiwan Education and Culture Center was opened in Makati, with full-time staff which would promote educational exchanges among both undergraduate and graduate students.  Taking a masteral course in science, applied physics, engineering, for instance, costs about a fifth in Taiwan as compared to the US, and yet the quality is comparable, and in some courses, probably better.  The bonus—you’re just two hours or less away from home.  Another bonus: If you are diligent enough, you learn Mandarin, destined to be the second most universally applicable language in this century.

- Advertisement -

And at the Manila Peninsula, a two-day Industrial Development Collaboration Summit was held among industry leaders led by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry through its president, George Barcelon and Taiwan’s National Federation of Industries through it’s chairman, Sheng Hsiung Hsu, otherwise known as Rock Hsu.  The affair was a joint effort of our Department of Trade and Industry, their Ministry of Economic Affairs, the private sector, and in the Philippine side, I must praise the efforts of the Taiwan Association in the Philippines led by Seimo Huang and Alan Lin, Taiwanese old-timers in the country who have adopted the Philippines as home.

This writer was among the many who delivered opening remarks in all forums, but let me just excerpt what I said before the Industry Collaboration Summit, which typifies my impression about the Philippines vis-à-vis it’s closest neighbor to its north.

Not wanting to either repeat or pre-empt a battery of speakers, I thought of inviting the attendees to two pictures flashed on a screen: The Philippine “atis” and Taiwan’s “shir-jia,” sometimes called “si-kya.”

The Philippine atis is a small one, about the size of a child’s fist, not so pleasant to look at, and though its flesh is sweet and creamy, it has plenty of seeds, which makes eating our atis a not-so-pleasant experience.  That is, if we could buy one.

I have three favorite fruits, the mango (Philippine of course), the pomelo (Davao of course), and atis, which usually comes from Batangas or Laguna, but has become so rare that one could hardly find it in our markets.

The Taiwan counterpart, the “shir-jia” is about the size of a baby’s head, and its sweet and creamy flesh is unencumbered by so many seeds, so that it is easy to eat.  It’s external cover is unblemished, unlike our atis, and inverted it looks like a Buddha “crown,” which is why the Chinese often refer to it as “Buddha’s head”.

There are hardly any commercial atis farms in the country, excepting the little town of Ibaan in Batangas, if my knowledge of agriculture is still right.  But in Taitung and Ping-tung in southern Taiwan which I have personally visited, there are so many small, family-run shir-jia farms which collectively export their rather expensive but worth it in terms of value-for-money fruit to Japan and Hong Kong, as well as in Taiwan markets.

So similar, and yet so dissimilar, and the secret is technology.  Plus hard work and perseverance.

Technology, plus “sipag at tiyaga,” to borrow Senator Manny Villar’s motto.

The Philippine economy, I maintained, has been showing impressive success of late, and I hope it becomes a continued boom rather than the previous boom-and-bust cycles that have prevented us from really taking off.

In a globalized economic order, the Philippines could do with a “little help from friends,” paraphrasing the famous Beatles song.

And Taiwan is one such friend.  It reaches out to its southern neighbors through a “New Southbound Policy”, where the Philippines, geographically its nearest, could be the gateway.

Beyond agriculture and aquaculture technology, and into green energy, the creation of “smart” cities, into manufacturing centers in our economic zones that aside from providing jobs to our countrymen, links us to the global supply chain, to so many other economic endeavors.

Beyond improving our atis, or our “macopa,” our “guyabano,” even our “ampalaya,” into the realm of high-tech.

* * *

Exhausted by the non-stop conferences and speeches of the last week, I nursed a fever over the week-end, and then yesterday woke up to the sad news that a dear friend, Joe Taruc, has departed from our mortal universe.

Mang Joe, as I always called him, had always supported my career in government, starting from the post office under Cory and Doy, to the last campaign for Rodrigo Duterte.  I was a favorite interviewee over his morning program over dzRH.

My sincere condolences to his grieving family, as well as his staff at dzRH.  He will be sorely missed.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles