Sulu’s ‘Salamat’ coffee: Peace and gratitude

MANILA, Philippines - The name of the group, Friends for Peace, sounds ordinary. But the work that they do for various communities make them far from ordinary.

Yesterday, the “friends” launched Salamat coffee from Patikul, Sulu at the Mabuhay Restop, a travel café cum art gallery in Rizal Park in Manila owned by Rose Cabrera, executive director of GKonomics, Gawad Kalinga’s arm promoting social entrepreneurship.

Sulu is a known area of conflict in Mindanao and the #friendsforpeace say it is high time to make people remember it for something great – like coffee – instead of just the hostilities.

The #friendsforpeace include Cabrera, Justo Ortiz, chairman and chief executive officer of UnionBank and his wife, Rina, a yoga teacher; Amor Maclang of of GeiserMaclang, a marketing consulting agency; Harris Conlin, president of Henry & Sons, one of the biggest coffee manufacturing companies in the country; Col. Greg Hernandez of the Philippine Marines; Rey Bufi of the Storytelling Project; and Emmanuel Santos, a Melbourne-based Filipino documentary and art photographer.

Together they work with Mercia Alli of Matawkasi Inc., a community-based organization in Sulu, and Muddazer Hailanie, chairman of the Kankitap Consumers Cooperative to produce the organic coffee. Kankitap is a small sitio in Patikul.

According to Rina, Friends for Peace executive director, she met Alli through another project in Zamboanga City and Sulu looking for ways to achieve peace and bring communities together. “One of the things that was neutral was coffee… The product can sell itself, however (it) is very far away, in the shadows of an interesting area,” Rina said.

Hopefully, Rina said the project would bring the people of Sulu together and inspire other communities to work with them. “We have something unique. We keep looking outside for things and we never look within,” Rina noted.

Alli and Hailanie traveled 10 hours by boat to get to Zamboanga City and then flew to Manila for the soft launching of the product.

“I am from Sulu and I am working with the government at the Department of Agriculture but we have difficulty selling products (from the area),” Alli said.

They first tried to sell fruits but these were perishable and could not withstand the transport.

They then thought of coffee production as a more sustainable project for the farmers and their families, who would be displaced every now and then because of the conflict.

Alli said the project could give much hope and a brighter future to the farmers.

For Hailanie, it is important to provide livelihood to their communities to save their people from getting involved in illegal activities. “If you don’t eat, how can you have inner peace?” he said.

Hailanie, who has lived all his life in Patikul, shared they started with only 17 members who contributed P100 each. “We are (operating) for almost five years now with (116 members),” he said, noting that the others were encouraged to join as they saw the progress of the project.

Maclang said Rina’s husband Justo could not stop talking about the coffee from Sulu when they met. She then thought of Conlin to complete the pack that would make their dream for Patikul farmers come true.

Justo disclosed it was their daughter who studied abroad and could hardly speak Filipino who suggested the name “Salamat” or “thank you” for the product.

“Salam is peace…that sounds good, it’s peace and gratitude,” Justo said, pointing out that it was time for Filipinos to come together and help themselves instead of relying on others and the government alone.

Conlin said they were ready to assist the Sulu farmers with the technology, training and other things they would need to become successful in the business, aside from lining up their coffee with the best in the world that they are distributing.

Conlin said they would “experiment” on the “no acidity” coffee grown in micro or small lots in Patikul. “It’s very, very smooth,” he mused.

“We are friends doing other things (and found coffee from Sulu as the neutral product that they could push together). (Whether) you’re a Muslim, Catholic, agnostic or whatever, you drink coffee,” Rina said.

“The production now is very low, we’re only at 110 kilos,” Rina said, but they plan to increase production by bringing more farmers on board.