I was happy to see that a few women in Batangas still cherish their town’s culture. Such was their forte for sewing and weaving all sorts of floral designs on fabric.
I was able to ask the two women I encountered also within the compound of Balisong makes we visited (which I will show on the next post) on how much they get paid for sewing designs on fabric. They were currently sewing patterns for a bed sheet. They said that they get paid for about 20php on a per-hour basis. I was in shock to know how underpaid they were for such effort they put on sewing such intricate patterns. Their hourly rate just wasn’t fair for such eye-squinting activity for a day. If it was only possible for them to just market and export their work and give an expensive asking price for each of the products they make…sigh. 
Batangenyas are really good in sewing patterns on fabric. It’s just sad that people take advantage of paying them at a low price in exchange for their labor. Only a few women practice such handmade labor nowadays because of the capabilities of mass production.
The unfortunate matter is that its very difficult to do business here, and some of these workers just need an opportunity to showcase what they can do, like in the rags to riches program.
Thank you for your wonderful articles. It all boils down to how much should we sell the handcrafted items and how long will it say in the shelves? Cost of money and so-on. If the storeowners will pay the workers more, the finished product may get priced too high. Remember that it should be competitive with OTHER handcrafted items from all over the world.
We have applied for an IGLF grant to train more “burdaderas” and promote their products – but there is no word yet. We are always hoping.
Maraming ganyang kaso ng pagiging underpaid sa Pilipinas, although madalas mangyari ito sa kanayunan… Doon, hindi lang pagiging underpaid ang problema nila, pati pang-aabusong militar kasi napapagkamalan silang NPA o nagkakanlong ng NPA…
oo nga tapos ang hirap pa ng work nila…
mahirap talaga yan..