Driven by her passion to help the people in their community, Perlita Abaco came up with the idea of organizing the Rural Improvement Club (RIC)-Diome. RIC-Diome is a women-led organization composed of twenty- eight (28) members engaged in farming or plain housewives. It was organized on June 18, 2011 with the help of the LGU- Maria Aurora, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Mrs. Perlita A. Abaco, President, RIC-Diome

To uplift the quality of living of communities living in the area, Mrs. Abaco started making buko pies as an income generating project. This led her to augment the income of the group and it paved the way for her to create more employment opportunities for members. However, the group was beset by problems, where meeting deadlines for orders became an issue because of lack of proper equipment and additional resources. Given this problem, Mrs. Abaco approached the DTI for assistance, until the Shared Service Facility project for Coconut Sweets and Native Delicacies processing was awarded to them on February 10, 2016. With the operationalization of the facility, the group’s production of buko pie and tarts suddenly doubled.

Mrs. Abaco, along with her other members, became avid and regular participants of trade fairs, entrepreneurial trainings and seminars conducted by the Negosyo Centers. Representing her group, Mrs. Abaco is one of the graduates of DTI’s Kapatid Mentor Micro Enterprise (KMME) Program. Today, from a mere enrollee of the KMME program, she is now engaged in mentoring activities where she gives inspirational talks. At present, RIC-Diome’s buko pie, buko tart, and bukayo, are now expanding their reach and they are now sold even as far as Region 2 and Metro Manila. Orders continue to increase and this serves as a welcome result to the group.

With her passion to help the community, Mrs. Abaco engaged herself into value added activities that utilize local resources abounding in their area. The passion has turned into business opportunities. RIC Diome is now taking every opportunities and turning them into meaningful realities.