06/10/2026
๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐: ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฎ๐ปโ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฃ ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐
Like dough that needs time to rest before it can rise, some dreams need patience, hard work, and the right opportunity to take shape.
For Susan Pagulayan of Piat, Cagayan, that opportunity came through the Department of Labor and Employmentโs Adjustment Measures Program (AMP), which provided her growing bakeshop with โฑ225,890.00 in assistance on December 5, 2025.
The support came at a crucial time for Susanโs Bakeshop, which had grown from a modest home-based venture into an enterprise supplying baked products, including nutribuns, for government feeding programs.
But long before the ovens started running in Piat, Susanโs journey began overseas.
While working as a domestic worker in Hong Kong, she supplemented her income by collecting discarded newspapers from neighboring houses and busy streets and selling them for one Hong Kong dollar per kilogram.
She continued the practice for nearly seven years, believing in the simple principle of โpera sa basura.โ By the time she returned to the Philippines in 2015, the savings she accumulated from selling newspapers amounted to around โฑ75,000.
Susan and her husband, Rufo Pagulayan, initially ventured into a restaurant business at the Piat Public Market. With the income unable to meet their familyโs needs, especially while Rufo was undergoing cancer treatment, they eventually turned to something closer to Susanโs passion: baking.
Using her savings as capital, Susan established Susanโs Bakeshop in August 2016 at their home in Dugayung, Piat, with only a small oven, a hand mixer, a few baking tools, and a modest structure made of concrete and bamboo.
Her first 20 products were prepared for churchgoers of the Basilica Minore of Piat. The simple strategy worked, and Susanโs banana bread gradually gained customers.
As demand increased, the business also began creating opportunities for others, employing mothers needing additional income, out-of-school youth saving for their education, farmers who had lost their land to erosion, and workers trained as baker aides and drivers.
Susan continued improving the enterprise through government interventions, including the Department of Trade and Industryโs Kapatid Mentor Me program, where she was part of the pioneering batch of mentees.
Her efforts later earned recognition at the regional level of the 2025 Productivity Olympics, where she won under the IndustryโSmall Enterprise category on June 18, 2025.
With improved packaging, proper labeling, and nutritional information, Susanโs Bakeshop was eventually tapped by the Department of Education, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and National Nutrition Council to produce nutribuns for feeding programs.
The growing demand, however, required greater production capacity.
Through DOLEโs AMP, Susanโs Bakeshop was able to acquire additional production equipment, including an oven, vegetable grinder, carrot shredder, chipping machine, cooking bread rack, aluminum baking trays, and banana bread molders. These helped strengthen its production capacity and allowed the enterprise to better respond to increasing orders from institutional clients.
The growth of the business has also translated into more employment opportunities. What began with Susan and her husband working full-time, with women and out-of-school youth occasionally called in to help, has since grown into a workforce of 10 regular employees and 47 on-call workers.
Today, Susanโs Bakeshop has a separate production area for nutribun and a wider product line that includes banana bread, cupcakes, cookies, and empanadas.
Years after Susan picked up discarded newspapers in Hong Kong to earn a little extra, those modest savings have grown into a livelihood that now helps sustain not only her family but other workers as well.
The better measure of how far her dream has risen is not simply how much the business has earned, but how many people have been given the opportunity to rise with it.
