SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — Students of the San Pedro National High School felt overwhelmed as they won in two categories of the “Competition for Innovation II” organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Antique provincial office Wednesday.
DTI Senior Trade and Industry Development Specialist Arlene Galopo said the competition is an initiative of the DTI Antique that aims to encourage students to come up with innovations that they could market as young entrepreneurs.
“We are happy because this year, there are six schools that have participated,” she said, noting the project is only on its second year.
Marjorie Altejos, one of the students from the San Pedro National High School in San Jose de Buenavista, said this is a big encouragement for the students to come up with their own food innovations.
“We presented the ginger bites for the root crops and the fish kropeck for the fish-based that both won first place,” she said.
Altejos said they made sure their entries in the competition really use indigenous materials, in this case, ginger and Durado fish.
She said they researched what they are going to prepare so their products would have a unique taste.
Her team included Genevee Blancia, Jenalyn Funelas, Nina Rica Belmonte, and Emmallete Shaine Braga. They were coached by Ciroleta Cordova, who handles technical-vocational education (TVE) specializing in cookery.
This year’s competition has four categories, namely: root crop, muscovado-based, fish-based and rice-based.
The articipating schools are Antique National School, Advance Central College Discovery High School, Antique Vocational School, Bitadton National High School, Gov. Julian Fullon Pacificador National High School, and San Pedro National High School.
The muscovado cookies with Talisay seeds by the students of the Antique National School in San Jose de Buenavista won the muscovado-based category, while the rice-based was won by the Bitadton National High School in Culasi town with its Buko Patuyaw Sushi.
Each of the first placers received PHP5,000.
The competition was held at the Adelaide Tourists and Travellers Inn on October 31. (Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/PNA)
