Buyboy: The green-gold grass behind La Union’s soft broom industry
Mely Tranes shows the source of the buyboy in Bagulin, Ilocos Sur.
Text and photos by Hanna C. Lacsamana
BAGULIN, La Union – In this town, almost every household has someone who knows how to make soft broom or walis tambo. Thanks to the “buyboy” or tiger grass that grows robustly in the barangays and its adjacent town of Burgos, the industry continues to prosper and makes a “clean sweep” in terms of producing high quality buyboy soft brooms.
Locals can make 25 to 30 brooms a day. The stalks of the plant are bunched and woven together.
Behind the colorful and export quality soft brooms of Elyu (another term for La Union) sold in the markets of Baguio City and usually mistakenly perceived as Baguio-made, are the locals of Bagulin and Burgos, who are in fact its original source and makers.
Mely Tranes, 53, has made a living from the buyboy that grows abundantly in her town.
Buoyed with the blessings from the soil as buyboy grows abundantly in their town, 53-year old Mely Tranes has been making soft brooms out of buyboy since she was young, learning from her parents who also made a living out of this industry. Tranes was not able to go to school, and making soft brooms has become her main source of livelihood.
The process starts from planting tiger grass, if not harvesting those that already grow on its own in the mountains of this upland La Union town. They plant it during rainy season, normally in June, and harvest them around February or March. No fertilizers are needed. The grasses then are dried and painstakingly arranged and sewn it into brooms.
Tranes can finish 25 to 30 pieces of brooms in one day.
Tranes, who were among those who demonstrated to the media and visitors how a broom made of buyboy is assembled at Cudal Park in Barangay Taludtud, shared that she and her husband who is employed in a private company are able to support the needs of their family by making buyboy soft brooms. Among her seven children, four are now professionals, two have their own families, and the youngest is in Grade 10.
“Malaki talaga ang tulong ng buyboy sa amin. If not for buyboy, I cannot imagine the life of the people here. It is our main livelihood source,” she said.
She and other soft broom makers in her community sell their finished products within La Union, Baguio City, Manila, Zambales and nearby towns, and it became an instant hit to tourists when they came up with multi-colored buyboy soft brooms, and also miniature ones as ref magnets and accessories that are unique pasalubong items, proudly Elyucano-made.
Buyboy soft brooms are made in different sizes and sold by “paki” or bundles to buyers who bring them to the market. A bundle has 60 buyboy brooms and is sold from P6,000 to 10,000 per bundle, depending on size or whether it is plain or colored.
The town of Bagulin is among the 11 municipalities of the first district of La Union toured by journalists and social media influencers, vloggers, and content creators through the Media Agkaysa Ronda organized by the Provincial Government of La Union under the leadership of Gov. Mario Ortega and Provincial Information Officer Joy Castillo. Through the activity, the province showcased the different local governments’ best practices, emerging attractions, and other new points of interest.*
