“Women have always been the backbone of a large majority of farming businesses, and they probably not had the recognition they deserve.” – Minnete Batters
The name Dolores Ceralbo is a story to tell. A story of poverty and hunger to luck, fame and perhaps fortune borne out of sheer hard work, discipline and sacrifice. Her story can be likened to a fairy-tale cum rags-to-survival like story shared and witnessed by her family, members of her organization and her community.
Manang Dolor, as I fondly called her, is the Chairperson of the Pandanon Integrated Balangon Farmers Association or PIBFA is a long-time partner of Alter Trade that started in 2006 with balangon trading, thus, the name PIBFA (as balangon farmers). Manang Dolor has always been a woman of willpower. A native of the old Murcia town which is now called Barangay Pandanon of the new municipality – Don Salvador Benedicto.
The 7th among fourteen siblings, Manang Dolor was born in a typical marginal poor farmer family who worked hard and according to her “aided by the grace of God,” was able to rise out of poverty. In her teenage years Manang Dolor went through the struggle a typical marginal farmer must go-through, yet, a woman. “Before I slept in the evening, I worried not of my school stuff, but I was more concerned of steamed banana and small fruits enough to be carried by my weak shoulders to sell at school the following morning”. This went on for years and the rest is history as we say.
A couple of decades after Manang Dolor got married and the partnership went more than more than expected of a happy family but a business partner that she considered her husband, “Intsik” Ceralbo a lucky charm. Manang Dolor became a faithful wife and a devout Catholic where both, to this day, are actively involved in church activities.
Today, she still leads PIBFA. She has led the organization for almost 2 decades now and has brought the organization certain recognition for which she constantly asserts, “if not for PIBFA I would not have been recognized as an individual – a woman farmer leader not only in my municipality but as well as the province or even at the national level. PIBFA’s networks and partnership with Alter Trade has also brought me to places outside of the Philippines that gave me a very enriching experience,” she punctuated.
In the past few years, Manang Dolor has been a consistent awardee of various government sponsored competitions on agriculture and rural development, especially organic farming practices intended for women practitioners from the barangay to the national level. A few prominent recognitions she received was the national winner of the 2022 Search for Outstanding Rural Woman by the Department of Agriculture. With this, PIBFA was a recipient of Rice Production and Mushroom Production Projects of the DA’s Special Area for Agricultural Development Program in Western Visayas. As the national winner, Manang Dolor Ceralbo received a hefty sum of PHP150,000 on top of the additional prize from regional agriculture with various programs and services assistance. PIBFA was able to receive farm equipment and machinery and the construction of facilities.
Recently, she was awarded as one of the Bagong Bayani during the Cinco de Noviembre celebration sponsored by the provincial government. She was also a delegate of various international events in South East Asia and Europe on organic farming, especially sugar production facilitated by Alter Trade, as trader of their certified organic and fair trade sugarcane as raw material for mascobado sugar production. As this piece is being written, Manang Dolor just informed me that she is now in Manila as a semi-finalist for the most outstanding women micro-entrepreneur award for 2023.
By the way, in the recently held barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Election she landed in the 2nd spot of the elected members of the Barangay Council of Pandanon in Don Salvador.
Manang Dolor more than all her accolades is an empowered woman leading an empowered organization in an internationally recognized local farming community. And one thing exemplary in Manang Dolor is that she is an organic farming practitioner to the core.
Manang Dolor is empowered and healthy because one thing for sure there will be more coming her way as a living testament of a woman leader that can very well serve as an inspiration among the thousands of rural women farmers in the Negros Occidental.*
