I am British Filipino and I am a founder (one of 15) of LASAP Inc. The advent of Covid and the introduction of expensive tourism bureaucracy called Tieza at the same time in Port Barton, caused extreme hardship on a population that relied on Tourism. We had to find alternative livelihoods. Our group is SEC registered and we are organising to become a Co-op. Our initial projects are pig and poultry farming. We have projects in the pipeline to produce coco coir products, cacao planting and abaca planting. Personally, I would like to see a sustainable and fair trade system for which the people and community benefit rather than a shareholding capitalist system which benefits those with means to invest into shares and driven to maximise returns from their shareholdings at the cost of the environment and squeezing pay of those who produce these products. I am looking at a link-supply-chain system with Co-ops around the world as an alternative to the supply chains and exploitive forms.
