Commercial mango production in Bicol probably would not have started had not a Batangas fruit trader owed a lot of money to Marcelo Escaro of Naga City. Some 30 years back, the trader, after disappearing for a number of years, suddenly materialized in Naga with a truckload of grafted mango seedlings. He told Mr. Escaro that instead of cash, he was paying his indebtedness with the mango seedlings.
With no other option, Escaro had to accept the seedlings and planted them in his farm in Calabanga. So many years later, in the early `90s, we attended a garden show in Naga and saw Mrs. Patria Escaro selling big, luscious carabao and apple mangoes at the show. We saw then Senator Nikki Coseteng, buying a lot of the fruits.
Suddenly the agriculturists in Bicol got interested in mangoes. In fact, the Department of Agriculture in Region 5 adopted the Escaros as their cooperator, placing a billboard declaring the same in front of the Escaro farm. When a strong typhoon devastated Camarines Sur, the province was given a calamity assistance fund of more than a million pesos. Much of the fund was used in purchasing grafted mango seedlings for distribution to families interested in planting mangoes.
Previously, the government agriculturists never recommended planting mangoes in Bicol because of the frequent typhoons that visited the region. While it is true that some of the trees of the Escaros were felled by strong winds, somehow they recovered. In fact, those that were toppled produced low-growing branches whose fruits were easier to harvest.
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