Client Stories > Ela Ancheta

Micro-enterprise : Scrap Dealer / Junkshop
TSPI Branch : TSPI – Caloocan Branch

There is money in junk! Ela Ancheta, a Secretarial course graduate, worked in department stores and engaged in a buy-and-sell business before finding her niche in the junkshop business. After graduation, she worked as a sales lady at the pants section of the department store in Ever Gotesco Mall-Caloocan City, where she earned a daily wage of P75. That lasted for only six (6) months and then she got married to Rodolfo, a tricycle driver, in 1982. From 1982 to 1985, Ela became a promo girl of pants at Uniware, Inc., an establishment in Makati; and then at Comtrade in Divisoria from 1985-1988. She only got P35 a day from the 2 establishments, almost 50% short of the minimum daily wage during that time.

When she left her post as a promo girl, she got into buying and selling various finished goods to add up to her husband’s weekly income of P500. She sold tocino, frozen foods, and stainless casserole and pans, wherein she earned P500 weekly. In 1994, she had a piggery but closed it in 1996 because her neighbors complained of the stench coming from her piggery.

The year 1997 was a painful chapter in her life. Rodolfo died of a lung disease and left her with their three (3) children – Michael, Mac Gregory, and Mark Robin – who are now 21, 16, and 13 years old respectively. Losing a loved one was one grief, and worrying of how to provide for their children was another. To add to her misery, someone whom they trusted stole her husband’s tricycle. But, through it all, she was able to cope up with the help of her siblings, who consoled and supported her. Ela’s brother was the one who offered her to be an agent scrapper. She welcomed the job thinking that there was nothing to lose and if it would be the means to meet her children’s needs. During this time, telephone directories became a big help to her. She got the contact numbers of different factories, called them and asked for scrap. She went to those factories, paid them for their scrap, and delivered the scrap to other factories, which would recycle and reuse those scrap materials. With this, she was able to earn an average of P5,000 a month. In this business, she met Ramil Malagueño, also an agent scrapper, from whom she found comfort and who gradually took the place of the role left by her husband.

In 2002, she got elected as one of the barangay officials (kagawad). TSPI staff came to their barangay in 2003, and that was how she learned of the group-lending program of TSPI. Being the kagawad and at the same time member of the livelihood program of their barangay, she joined TSPI to get additional capital so that she may also help others through her business. In addition, she liked the policies of the program and other value added services like savings and insurance.

By the same year (2003), Ela and Ramil stopped being an agent scrapper and decided to use the P5,000 loan from TSPI to put up their own scrap dealership business, named as Ramil Malagueño Scrap Dealer (RMSD). They invested their capital in buying different kinds of plastics, which include PVC pipes, mineral water bottles, etc., from their contacts and from walk-ins from their barangay, who were usually children. Their scrap dealership business started with only two (2) workers, whom they paid P150 a day, and was earning P10,000 a month.

Presently, their business owns two (2) trucks for getting and delivering scrap materials from and to different factories. They have three (3) big factories in Valenzuela as the major recipients of their scrap. Moreover, the business is able to employ six (6) workers – 2 of which are relatives of Ela’s husband. The workers are given fixed daily wages. The secretary, 2 plastic sorters, and 2 laborers (pahinate) get P250 each while the driver gets P350. Ramil, to whom she has two (2) children – Pamela Joana, 8 years old, and Kristina, a week old infant, is the driver of the other truck and at the same time the one who double checks if the volume of scrap they are getting is correct. There are four (4) deliveries of scrap materials to factories in Valenzuela in one week and the highest volume that they can deliver reaches 1.5 tons, which could generate a weekly sales of P25,000 or P100,000 a month, with net profit of P50,000 a month.

Ela is an epitome of an empowered woman. She did not let herself be overpowered by the grief she experienced from losing a husband, was able to put up her own business, and a woman who is a good example to the community. She believes she earned the respect of the people because of her being elected as the barangay kagawad. She declares “bakit ka iboboto kung hindi maganda ang ugali mo?” (Why would people vote for someone with a bad attitude?). Moreover, she founded a woman’s organization called Ladies Amiga Brigade, which initiates medical missions, cleanliness projects, and recently gave notebooks for school-aged children in their barangay.

Ela is proud that she was a scrapper and now has a business that deals with other people’s junk. A life of scrapper, she shares, is “Masarap na mahirap… Naaalikabukan ka pero kapag sinuwerte ka naman, daig mo pa iyong mga may white collar jobs” (Difficult yet fulfilling… you get filthy but when luck comes to you, you get more than what white collar jobs workers get).      

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