Isabela MOTY
It's the time of the year again, and despite the overload of work and seemingly impossible schedule, I still find my way i Isabela in the Cagayan Valley. An eight hour drive up north is one of the longest I've ever had, but taking the bus proved to be convenient. We took a Victory Liner bus in Kamias, Cubao and embarked through Bulacan, the endless Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, finally hitting Isabela. I was in the province in search of the Microentrepreneur of the Year, a yearly award given by Citi, the Bangko Sentral, and the Microfinance Council of the Philippines. We had to interview 3 nominees in the province. We stayed in the Cauayan, which is a sleepy city an hour away from the capital, Santiago. There was nothing of interest in Cauayan, so the highlight of the trip was interviewing these nominees. One couple made chicharon for a living, the other a former soldier who is now making puto and kutsinta, and the last one, a mother who had several agricultural businesses in her