Good and Green

Episode 53: How Island Living Sparked a New Purpose-Driven Life with Raul and Ichay Bulaong

• Pacita Juan • Episode 53

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0:00 | 32:10

What happens when you leave the corporate world and start over on a remote island? In this episode of Good and Green, Chit Juan talks with Ichay and Raul Bulaong about their decision to leave city life behind and build a new life in Coron, Palawan. What began as a search for a simpler lifestyle evolved into a series of purpose-driven businesses focused on sustainability, fair trade, and community impact. From growing salad greens and developing products from breadnut and cashew to creating opportunities for indigenous gatherers, the couple shares how they turned challenges into meaningful enterprises. They also reflect on the lessons of island living, the value of slowing down, and why it is never too late to learn new skills, pursue new passions, and create positive change.


GUEST BIO:

Raul and Ichay Bulaong are former corporate executives who left city life 12 years ago to build a purpose-driven life in Coron, Palawan. Ichay is an entrepreneur, educator, and founder of Island Girl Calamancello, a locally crafted calamansi liqueur inspired by Italy's limoncello, and currently teaches at Palawan State University. Raul is the founder of Palawan Cashew Company and Pedro's Gelato, enterprises that create local livelihoods through value-added agricultural products and sustainable business models. United by their love for sailing and island living, the couple continues to champion community development, entrepreneurship, and sustainable lifestyles in Palawan.


WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

  • Why Ichay and Raul chose to leave city life and build a new life in Coron.
  • Creating sustainable businesses from local agricultural products such as cashew and calamansi.
  • Lessons learned from starting new ventures without prior industry experience.
  • How purpose, community, and simplicity shaped their approach to work and life.


QUOTES:

  • The number one realization after a year or two was we could have done it earlier. —Ichay Bulaong
  • When we moved to Coron, our lifestyle changed. It wasn't deliberate. It just happened. —Raul Bulaong
  • Our house is surrounded by trees, and we're always out in the water. It's really healing. I feel it. It's very healing. —Ichay Bulaong
  • That's another realization. You can learn anything. —Ichay Bulaong
  • Find the problem. Figure it out, and help solve it. —Raul Bulaong
  • It's okay to make mistakes, but don't do it twice. —Ichay Bulaong


LINKS or RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Connect with Raul and Ichay Bulaong:


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Purchase Brew: Cafe, Coffee. Kape  at Echostore.ph.

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Chit Juan

Welcome to the Good and Green Podcast. I'm your host, Chit Huan. In this show, we share stories of farmers, food advocates, social entrepreneurs, and community leaders working to build a more sustainable future. Let's discover how to live lives that are truly good and green. So welcome to Good and Green, Ichai and Raul, and happy to have you in our podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Hello, kid. It's so nice to see you.

Chit Juan

Thank you for inviting us. We're happy to be here. Yeah, so I meant to really get in touch because I know that you are my inspiration for early retirement. Maybe we can talk about that first because I know that when we first met, and I guess what? That's 10 years ago, maybe. I think so, yes. Yeah. You were just, you know, looking at your sailboat from your house at the top of the hill. I still remember that site. And we were going to have lunch or something. How does it feel to be retired and then rewired again? Actually, we actually don't call ourselves retired. Um and we didn't retire from work. We always say we retired from the city. We left the city because we were tired of living in the city, and we moved here. We chose Coron because it's we think it's the most beautiful part of the Philippines. But we're still working, we're busy. We have businesses, we have several businesses, the two of us separate and together. So I think retired is uh maybe not the right word. When I met you, I I remember writing about you guys uh back then. But in my mind, it's like, how can they retire so young? And now, 12 years hence, you're actually confirming you never really retired. We retired from the city and the corporate world. That's a good statement. Okay. You only say that. We retired from the city and the corporate world. We have businesses. We live in this beautiful island. The setting is not corporate, the setting is not cosmopolitan. We have businesses that are close to our hearts that we're passionate about. We don't deal with traffic, we don't deal with corporate, you know. You're the perfect model for today's, you know, maybe even the digital nomads, you know, the digital nomads look for a place that's away from the city. And I know Raul's been digital for a long time. So let's talk about Ma'ambeng farm, HI. When I was last with you, you said you were starting the Ma'am Bang farm. Yes. Is that right? So were you always a farmer or did you grow up in a farm? How did you have the courage to start this farm? So, no, zero background with farming, planting, anything to do with the land. Completely zero. But I remember we were vacationing here before we moved here, and we went to the market to buy food, and we were flabbergasted with the cost of the vegetables. And we learned that all the vegetables are imported from Mindoro or Manila. It just blew our minds, you know. So that's why we decided to put up a farm. But no, I didn't know anything. So the secret is hiring a consultant. So we hired a consultant and we made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes along the way. I was so excited, you know, you're coming from a manila mindset where you want to do everything, you want to go higher, faster. So I planted all the vegetables in the Bahai Kuba song. But now, you know, after a few years, I found out that it's not really the right thing to do. So now I'm concentrating on lettuce or salad greens and calamansi. Okay, so it also took you a few years of harvest to zero in on what you like to grow. What I like to grow and what is profitable. Okay, because after all, you have to be sustainable, right? Correct. Okay, now we go to also I know now about the Ma'ambeng farm and the Kalamansi, and of course, your new product, which is the calamansi cello. Okay, now let's talk about Raul. Raul came from a tech background, corporate job. And last I know he's a sailor. That's and he's he had ice cream. Okay, that much I know. Yes, and then Raul, you found this advocacy. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00

When the pandemic hit, Coron was on its knees. I mean, you know, it's a tourist-dependent community, and when the lockdown happened, the economy stopped. All of a sudden, the poverty just shut up. It was so a lot of people had a hard time. There was no money going around. It was tough for everyone. So I looked for a project that you know, you can't just sit down and watch it. So you know that we weren't really planning to work anymore or get into big business, but we had to look for a project that would actually benefit the people in the edges, in the barrio. Kasi ng dun yung nagihirape. So I researched what would that be. Then I found out that one, the Philippines is the fifth largest cashew-producing country in the world, and two, 95% of that cashew comes from Palawan, northern Palawan to be precise.

Chit Juan

Where we are.

SPEAKER_00

Where we are. So Sabiko, then this should be the project that Palawan cashew chip grows in the wild. It's not farmed. So what happens is it grows in the mountains, planted by squirrels, birds, and it's not like farms where it's in rows, rows and rows of trees. These are all wild trees. These trees have never been fertilized, never tasted pesticides. And what happens is that the community living in the, let's say, let's take Mount Talapai, for instance. In Mount Talapai, the community that lives there in that mountain are the ones who take care of the trees. They clean around the trees when it's season, they gather, they we don't deal with farmers, we deal with gatherers here. What I realized, Sabiko, if there's so much of this, and you know, cashew is one of the most expensive nuts. If it's abundant, how come people are still poor? Then I realized that the business model was wrong. There were traders who would buy really cheap from the gatherers. When we opened our business, they were buying from the gatherers at 10 pesos and selling to Antipolo for 40 pesos. Raw material. This is the raw material. So it was the trader who was making the money. That's always been the issue. So I decided, Sabiko, how can we pay the gatherers the 40 pesos that Manila pays? And the only way I could do it is if we did the processing here in Koran. So we decided to put up the processing facility here, and I had to learn how to process cashew. Of course, I've never done it, I've never seen it before. So Mejo, it was a uh thank God for Google. And you know, when when the pandemic hit, remember, we all didn't know what was happening, and we were all scared, and everybody was helping each other. So I would call people in Brazil, they would help me, teach me their best practices. I would call Vietnam, the biggest expression.

Chit Juan

Brazil, the number one producer.

SPEAKER_00

Vietnam.

Chit Juan

Vietnam is the number one producer of cashew.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. There's there's some common denominator between the five largest cashew producing countries.

Chit Juan

They also produce coffee.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. We are at 12 degrees north of the equator latitude. That's common. So dito sakoron, ang joke dito, wak kang dura and dura dahil to tu buyung kasuy. What do you mean? It's so abundant. You know, when you go to the some parts of the island, it's cashew as far as you can see. You know our house, Liba. You've been to our house. Around our house is all cashew trees. And these are all wild trees. Hindi na limita. Okay.

Chit Juan

But how come it was antipolo that became famous?

SPEAKER_00

Because they were processing. And the process is just what roasting the nut? Um, no, it's quite complicated. Cashew is toxic, it's part of the poison ivy family. I see. Okay. So it can burn your skin. It's not easy to process.

Chit Juan

And the antipolo people who knew how to process cashew?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, because antipolo had cashews before. Before it became a big subdivision, they had cashew also. But majority of the cashew really comes from Palawan.

Chit Juan

But but you're correct that most of the processing is really antipolo. That's why antipolo is known as the cashew center rather than Palawan, which we're trying to change. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Very interesting. Okay. So the advocacy was fair trade. The advocacy is fair trade. How can we pay the people the manila price that Antipolo is paying?

Chit Juan

Which currently, just for perspective, what is the manila wholesale price, for example? Of processed. Yes. Of ready to eat, let's say.

SPEAKER_00

I think they're at 1200 per kilo. Yeah.

Chit Juan

And the 10 pesos per kilo from the gatherers is the fruit or the the nut, the raw nut. Okay, because I've seen the fruit. A friend of mine has a cashew tree in cavite and he gave me the fruit. Okay. You can eat the fruit, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Yes. But what is poisonous? There's this oil, this liquid in the shell. The shell of the nut, the nut is encased in a shell. There's this liquid in the shell that when you crack it open or when you burn it, because the traditional way of processing it is that they put it in fire. When you burn it, all the chickens around you will die.

Chit Juan

So it's poison for other living things.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. And also human. For humans, it burns your skin. Oh delegates a skin ma. So the advocacy now is because the shell is thrown away and the fruit is thrown away and fed to the animals, we want to process those as well because the gatherers can now make money out of it. So aside from just the nuts and the kernels, we want to monetize the fruit and the shell. That way, they're not just selling the nuts now. They will now be selling the fruit as well. And we want to make the fruit into high-value products.

Chit Juan

So, Raul, why did it take a semi-retired corporate person like you to do this when, you know, Coron, I've always been buying Bundy, you know, there's nobody enterprising in the whole island of Palawan?

SPEAKER_00

You know what? I think they took it for granted because they grew up with it. So they took it for granted. And I think the problem was really exacerbated by the lockdown. Okay. So I think before that, kumikita naman sila, you know, mali it, so nung lockdown, ramdam na ramdam talaganila, and we saw it.

Chit Juan

So now you are gathering or you're in touch with gatherers, as you said, foragers, not farmers. And you said that 35% of the cashew comes from Palawan? 95. 95. Oh my gosh. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

95. So we work with the indigenous people with the Tagbano tribe. Okay. They're the ones who more than half of our raw materials come from them. I see. Yeah.

Chit Juan

Okay, so I'm sure your Palawan cashew company, you now have cashew everything: roasted, salted, glazed, etc.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, correct. But the idea is we wanted to sell premium products because cashew is a premium product. We wanted to sell whole cashews. Okay. Because the value of whole cashews is double versus the split nuts.

Chit Juan

Only for people to pound it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. So what happened was we realized that during the process, natural na ma babasag or ma be break young kernels. So okay, the yield is slower, it's small. So if you have one 100 kilos of raw nuts, only 25 kilos will become kernels. Of the 25 kilos, only 30% of that, or about less than 10 kilos will be whole. The rest will be broken.

Chit Juan

So in 100 kilos, practically only seven kilos is the yield. Whole 25, 30%, you said. Anyway, it's a very small yield. Very small yield. Okay. I understand the pricing now.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

Chit Juan

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I refuse to sell the split nuts for half the price of the whole. It's the same nut. It's the same nut, it has the same nutrition, it's just not as pretty. Okay. So instead of selling those, we created higher value products. We created cashew butter. Okay. So the cashew butter value is higher than the whole nuts. So we were able to utilize the splits and sell it at a better price than the whole kernels. Okay. So then you that was that was what happened.

Chit Juan

I see, and now nut butters are in fashion. But it's good to know that you have it there. Now, let's so you now have CNC, calamansi and cashew. So I guess with Ichai, the calamansi story is the same. You you can tell us the calamansi story, Ichai. Well, I told you that I started with uh Mahaikubo vegetables. And then after two or three years, I decided that I'll plant calamansi in the rest of our property, which I did. So calamansi became my main product. But just like the rest of the world, you know, when the pandemic hit, I was stuck with calamansi and no buyers. Okay, because as Raoul was saying, it was zero tourism, the island was closed. And it was really, I was just wondering what to do with all this kalamansi. And I was just googling what to do with kalamansi. And that's how the idea of calamanchelo came about. When Raoul was very busy working on the cashew processing plant, he actually built a factory. I was always getting drunk, taste testing my calamanchelo. But it's a nice, nice kind of drunk. And then it's perfect that you can eat the cashew while you're drinking for polukan. Yeah. Very nice. So what can you what can you advise people who are like stuck in corporate? Should they go buy a sailboat and follow the Quran? Or what can you advise couples who who are tired or burnt out by corporate jobs? Hmm. That's um that's difficult. It's hard to give advice. But rather than giving advice, I'd like to tell you one learning, okay, one realization that we had wanted to move here for a long time already because we wanted to get out of the city. But we were scared. It was scary. Imagine you leave the city and you move to an island where you have no family, no relatives, no friends. We did that because finally our financial responsibilities were much less because the kids had already graduated. When we moved here, the number one realization after a year or two was we could have done it earlier. That was the realization that when you move here, your expenses also go down significantly because the cost of living is lower, you don't need to have a fancy car. That's the inspiration I like. Because I remember you couldn't invite me to lunch because you had only bought two pieces of fish. You said, Yes, I remember. I remember because I always want it fresh. Um, I remember my fridge in Manila. Whenever I look at it or my pantry, it's so full. And maybe a big chunk is expired, right? And you don't really know what's there. And even your clothes, you know, so many clothes, but you know, so we're done with that. I know, I always see Raul in shorts. Always a lot of pluses. Your uniform is shorts, slippers. Tell us more about the realizations.

SPEAKER_00

One of the things, when you're retiring, when you're taking a big step, a major step, and you're quitting your job, you're moving to uh a new place. Shampre, we consulted the wealth managers. We consulted the wealth managers. And the first question that the wealth manager asked was, what lifestyle do you want to live? Which is the it's the right question, but wrong in the sense that naturally your answer will be, I want my lifestyle to be the same. But what I realized in Manila, you're in corporate, you're doing so well financially, you're driving, you know, really fancy cars. You don't want your lifestyle to go down, right? But then he will get back to you and say, Well, in that case, you will need X amount before you can retire. If in the CT setting. In the same lifestyle setting. Okay, same lifestyle. Okay. So when I heard the number, I'm like, oh hindi kupama abutyang pera nayan. You know, because the lifestyle was so high. When we moved to Koran, grabe, our lifestyle, we didn't even notice, but our lifestyle changed. It wasn't deliberate, it just happened. You know, it's as Ichai said, we don't even freeze our food. We go to the market every day. So parakalang gumagasus ng konte every day. You're not really in Manila. We lived in the south. We spent 20,000 pesos on toll fees alone. Yeah. In Manila.

Chit Juan

That's my favorite example. I know because it's in the credit card, right? So every month, my toll fees would be 20,000.

SPEAKER_00

And here in Coron, our first few years up to now, our 20,000 is our monthly budget.

Chit Juan

Oh my gosh, you'll have everybody moving to our 7,000 islands. But you know, well, we have solar, so we don't have a power bill. Well, you don't have a power bill, you don't have toll bills. So now, with gas prices increasing, what is the biggest effect on you when gas prices go up?

SPEAKER_00

We can't use the engine of our boat, we go sailing along.

Chit Juan

I know. I was thinking of that because there's there's a sailboat that has a motor, right? Yes, but you can just go with the wind. Yes, okay, nice, nice. So you're really sailors now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Real sailors now. Well, an engine.

Chit Juan

Yeah, because I heard that it consumes double of a car. I mean, I think maybe more, more than double. Okay, okay. Good. So, HI, tell us you go to market every day, you eat fresh food. What about health? What about going to the doctor? I mean, you you have that all figured out in your retirement city. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but we're very bad at going to the doctor and getting a checkup. But maybe you'll also be in for another surprise that having moved to Coron, your health checks are probably very good. Exactly. You know, we exercise every day. We walk 5K every day, we go bicycling, etc. So that's my routine 5K walk at 6 or 6:30 in the morning. And whenever I'm in the city, I still do that. And that's when I appreciate my island life the most. Because I go to walk in the city and it's crazy. The sidewalks are crazy. And this is at 6 a.m. And it's already busy and it's all concrete, you know. I like that island life. So you've had your realizations, you should have done it earlier. But now, how will you the businesses will sustain both of you? You have so much nest egg, you don't really need to do a business. What is the next five years looking like?

SPEAKER_00

I'm working harder now than when I was in Manila because of this advocacy.

Chit Juan

But it's never worked because you like what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yes. I enjoy what I'm doing. But going back to the health, whenever I get my annual checkup, yeah, my physical, my doctor says, Pang teen ager yung numbers, mwa. Uh-oh. Everything's everything's normal. When I was in Manila, grab yang maintenance ko. Now almost all of my maintenance meds are out, are gone. Like my hypertension maintenance. I'm down to maybe an eighth of what it was. So I became very healthy when I moved here.

Chit Juan

So it's the no stress. Fresh food, clean air. Yeah. You know? You know, the nature, like our house is surrounded by trees, and we're always out in the water. It's really healing. I feel it. It's very healing. But what's nice about what you did is that you know you went back to nature, but you have a business that's ongoing. So I mean, you're highly financially sustainable. I'm not even asking about your nest egg. Yeah. Another difference is, as I said, dog, we're both very busy. We both manage our businesses, we're super hands-on, but the stress level is low. Uh-huh. Because the city setting is stressful. Okay. I think traffic alone or getting to where you need to be or planning your day around the traffic. I think that's stressful. So we don't have those stresses. We don't have that. Okay. Yeah. But we're busy. Okay. You're busy, it's good, busy. But what are the challenges of island land?

SPEAKER_00

It took us some time to grocery details. We go to sarisari stores, or maybe, you know, a big sarisari store for a grocery. And coming from Manila, we were so dependent on a lot of products that you buy in Rustans and Santi's and all those things. It took us some time to actually unlearn that and just live with what's available here. It took some time. And we were able to do it. At first, you're so dependent on going to Rustans for your grocery. And then after a while, available and dita.

Chit Juan

Yeah. You learn to adapt, I guess. Yes. And what about you know your sailing? Do you still have time for it? You're so busy now. You might have forgotten you went there because you wanted to sail. That's our therapy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we still go sailing.

Chit Juan

So when do you find time for it? Anytime, no? Because you're weekends or long weekends. Yeah. Yeah. So when friends come, when friends come and visit from the city, do they say, I'm gonna do this too? Or what do your friends say when you entertain them? Or did you change your sets of friends when you move?

SPEAKER_00

No, we have our Manila friends who visit. That's a lot. In fact, our social life here is so busy as well. I say everybody who comes here from Manila wants to see us, Ediba. Oh yeah. So it's quite busy. We we go around three different circles of friends here. We have the Manila people who moved here, there's the foreigners who moved here, the expats, and then there are the local business people. It's now your community. It's our community now. Uh-oh.

Chit Juan

But Rahul, I remember you started an ice cream kiosk back then.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, I did.

Chit Juan

That's his first business.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because you love ice cream or ice cream. There was no good ice cream in the island, so I decided to make my own. Okay. I didn't know anything about it, so I hired an Italian consultant to help me set it up. It's still running. We turned 10 years last week. Yeah. And I'm sure you have cashew as a flavor. I'm working on that. I'm not convinced that it's uh no. So I'm still working on that.

Chit Juan

Actually, that's another realization. You can learn anything. I know. Tell ourselves that. We can learn anything. You know what? From this talk, I'm learning that you guys were humble enough to know you can't just Google everything. You've got to hire consultants, you've got to hire experts. And I think that's very good advice for people who want to go another direction, turn left instead of right. You know, I think being humble enough to say, I don't know this, right? And asking experts to guide you or hold your hands. Fantastic. So I think for this episode, anyway, and I'm sure I'm going to have both of you or you know, each one of you for your own episodes. I think it's really about telling people that it's possible. It's possible to change gears. I mean, I know I won't ask each other age, but Raul, I can ask you. You're probably in your mid-50s.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, I I'm 61 now. Oh, okay. We moved here. We retired when we were 49. Okay. So it's been 12 years. 61 nako. Nice, nice. I got into this business, this cashew business, maybe four years ago.

Chit Juan

Well, I don't mind telling you my age.

unknown

Okay.

Chit Juan

Well, Colonel Sanders started, I think, when he was in his 60s, too. 65, yes. Where KFT is, right? I didn't know that. It's great advice for seniors, it's great advice for people who want a change of scene. And with this world crisis now, I mean, we've got 7,000 islands, and you guys have already found your island. That's really great. So, what are the three if we had three tips to give our listeners? Good and green tips. Because I know you guys are, you know, in sustainability, in being echo-friendly, natural, you know, living and all that. What are, or maybe four to each KO? What are the three or four tips you can give our listeners? Find the problem.

SPEAKER_00

You already found two, the ice cream and the cashew. Yeah. Find the problem and um figure out and help how to solve it. Nice. Then and then I'm at a point in my life where I started thinking of others already, you know, because in the city, Diva, we're we're so trained to look rat crazy. Oh, rat race. We're looking internally all the time, we're always thinking about ourselves. How do we benefit from this? Here, the value is giver's gain. Oh, yeah. So I know. So Anusha. I like that, huh?

Chit Juan

First time I came across that giver's gain.

SPEAKER_00

Nice. Yeah, it's purpose-driven. Yeah. So find the problem, see if you can help solve it. Most probably if you're coming from a corporate job and I know it's solve.

Chit Juan

That's nice. How about you, Chai? I always tell my kids this it's okay to make mistakes. So it's okay to make mistakes, but don't do it twice. So yeah. So, you know, you were asking earlier, do our friends say that they want to come here, they want to do this? Everyone says that, okay? They know right away that you know, island life is not for everyone. But the other half will keep on talking and talking about it and until they do it. And until but they don't do it. I think it's also the fact that to begin with, you guys are sailors. I remember using that word. I mean, Ichai used that word, and I said, Yeah, that's right. They sail, they're sailors. And you know, I had that thought with me when I went home. Of course, I don't sail, I have no idea how a boat works. But, you know, it's nice that you found first your passion in sailing, and then you found your givers gain mentality. Both of you, I know, because I know that Ichai, you also were teaching. Are you still teaching? I'm not teaching this am because they have no slot for me, because they prioritize full-time teachers. But yes, I teach in the Palawan State University Koran campus. Oh, nice! So you I love it. You're giving back in many ways. And I'm sure when you went there, it's not because you you were from there, but you really migrant to Palawan. Yeah. Yes, very inspiring. Thank you so much. I wish we had more time, but maybe we'll have more episodes in the future. So if they want to find you on social media, do you have accounts that you can share? We're in Facebook and Instagram, Pedro Scashews for the Scashew business. There's also Pedros Gelato, and there's I Lut Girl Calomancello for myself. And the Pedro comes from Raul Pedro. Yeah, I am. Now I know I wanted to ask, what's Pedro? I know they have two daughters. Who's Pedro? It's you. Okay, yeah. Thank you so much. And I hope we can call you and the next time. Yes, you know what? Um, the next time you're here, we'll take you sailing. I like that. Okay, I'm there. I'm flying over. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. All right, okay, bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Good and Green podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show and leave a review. It helps more people find us and feel free to share it with a friend. Until next time, keep it good and green.

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Pacita "Chit" Juan

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