The yellow-painted Lighthouse Cooperative (LC) building in the city of Tuguegarao City, Cagayan stands conspiciously, and people are perplexed as to why it was named as “lighthouse,” where in fact the city is far from the coastline.

According to Chairperson Arthuro “Art” Tabbu, the name was inspired by the Bible verse in the book of Psalm 119:105 which says, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path.” 

A lighthouse is constructed on rocky cliffs or a wave-swept reef in the sea to guide sailors away from dangerous coastlines. This, according to Art, is reflected in their mission to act as Cagayan’s lighthouse keepers and ignite light by generating employment possibilities. 

The LC is a church-based cooperative that was established in August 1998 through themembers of the Victory Christian Fellowship (VCF) in Tuguegarao City. Its founders realized the importance of creating a cooperative to safeguard consumers against greedy entrepreneurs. The first businesses that they ventured into were selling computer services, home furniture, and office supplies.

In 2006, while they were standing on the sidewalk, they saw a vendor holding a bag of chicharon (crackling) made from carabao. They thought that it was a bright idea to create a product from carabao and introduce it to the market. After conducting thorough research, they finally came up with the Chicha-rabao.

However, they were challenged when they tried to introduce the product to the public. “We heard feedbacks from people saying that the price is expensive but no difference from other kinds of chicharon. They said we just put a label in the container but it’s just an ordinary chicharon,” Arthuro said. 

They did not lose heart so they did more research. Their efforts worked and they were able to formulate seasonings, and that was how the garlic flavor was made. Today, chicha-rabao is available in two other variants: hot and spicy and onion and vinegar.

Arthuro is proud that Chicha-rabao now has an identity as a product of Cagayan. It is recognized as the “One Town, One Product” of Tuguegarao City under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Chicha-rabao, as many describe it, is not as heavily fat-laden as the other chicharons being sold in the market. It is puffy in texture, like puffed cheese balls, with a light and tasty flavor. Nutrition wise, it is definitely less in fat and lower in cholesterol since it is purely made from carabao’s skin only. It can be taken without having to dip it in the usual vinegar mix. 

Fresh from the slaughter house, the carabao’s skin are cleaned, chopped to a specific size and then deep-fried in boiling oil. The skin is tempered first. It is mixed with small amounts of a hot ingredient and a cold ingredient before adding the entire cold ingredient to the hot ingredient. This way, it helps prevent the cold ingredient from curdling or lumping when it is mixed into the hot ingredient. 

Art revealed that they need a volume of 70,000 kg, which is equivalent to about 2,000 head of carabao, for the processing of chicha-rabao. They are buying the raw materials from slaughterhouses and from local farmers for PHP65 per kg.

“Basically, without the chicha-rabao, sales would be very poor. It’s the chicha-rabao that attracts customers,” he happily said. 

Today, the LC continues to spread light by generating employment for and provide additional investment, income and saving opportunity in Cagayan. 

“Our main goal is to generate more jobs not so much on the profit. At the end of the year, we make sure that we give back the fruit of our effort,” said Art. 

The LC is grateful that there has never been a year when it experienced a loss of revenue, even during the pandemic. Their way forward is to expand, develop more products, and build more lighthouses to create more opportunities.
 

The Lighthouse Cooperative is inspired by Bible verse Psalm 119:105, and we live this out by providing employment opportunities to our fellow Cagayanos. We offer different kinds of services and products, and one of our products that we are proud of is the Chicha-rabao. It differs from other varieties of chicharon because it is made from carabao’s skin and not from fat. We are happy that Chicha-rabao has become identified with Tuguegarao, Cagayan.