Bentig- Calunasan- Mandaug Strip- Broom Making

Overview

Strip broom making is a traditional cottage industry practised across the three adjoining barangays of Bentig, Calunasan, and Mandaug in the municipality of Calape, northwestern Bohol. The activity is recorded in the BPTO provincial tourist-attraction inventory under customs and traditions.

Locally the craft is known as buri broom making: brooms are made from the stems of freshly harvested buri palm leaves, sourced mostly within the municipality with some supplementary fiber from neighboring Inabanga. It is a purely manual, home-based livelihood — producers work from their own houses rather than a dedicated production facility — that has supported more than 20 households in Calunasan alone, with roots tracing back to the 1960s.

[TO ENRICH: whether visitors can observe or participate in the process]

Location

Barangays Bentig, Calunasan, and Mandaug (collectively referred to as Ben-Cal-Man), Calape, Bohol. Calape is on the western coast of Bohol, roughly 35 km from Tagbilaran.

Getting There

From Tagbilaran, take a bus or jeepney bound for Tubigon or Calape along the western route. Alight at Calape town proper and arrange a habal-habal to the Ben-Cal-Man barangays. [TO ENRICH: travel time from Calape town proper to production households]

Practical Info

• No formal visitor facility confirmed. A local group, the Calunasa Broom-Maker Association (CBMA), represents area broom makers and received PHP498,544 in livelihood assistance from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-7) in April 2023 [FACT NEEDED: whether CBMA or a barangay hall organises visitor visits]
• Products may be available for purchase directly from producers [FACT NEEDED: prices]. Demand for the brooms peaks in the first and second quarters of the year, timed to New Year, fiesta season, and the opening of the school year; producers report making an estimated 31–60 pieces per day during this peak versus roughly 1–15 pieces per day in the off-season
• Often combined with a visit to Binogawan Pottery (same municipality)

What to Expect

Broom making in the Ben-Cal-Man strip is a household-level livelihood activity. Brooms are assembled from buri palm leaf-stem fiber, worked with simple hand tools such as a clip (locally “pang-ipit”), and tied or stitched into bundles. The craft is typically passed within families.

More than 20 households in Calunasan are involved in the trade, a scale documented since a 2015 industry study. That study found no formal cooperative managing the craft at the time; by 2023 broom makers in the area had organized as the Calunasa Broom-Maker Association (CBMA), which received government livelihood funding that year. [TO ENRICH: connection to any local festival or market day]

Notes

• [FACT NEEDED: source profile lists this attraction by name and classification only — full description requires enrichment.]
• Calape municipality also hosts Binogawan Pottery (Sta. Cruz), ABN Takla and Crab Sight, and Cecee’s Organic Farm — making a combined itinerary practical
• Barangay Bentig was among the barangays of Calape formally organized in 1957; Calape’s provincial economic profile lists cottage basket/fiber weaving as one of the municipality’s traditional industries, alongside farming and livestock raising, which is consistent with a household fiber-craft trade like strip broom making. Calape - Provincial Government of Bohol, accessed 2026-07-17.
• Raw material, household scale, production process, and history sourced from an academic industry study of the craft: Y.D. Rabia et al., “Industry Analysis of Buri Broom Making in Calunasan, Calape, Bohol,” Research, Development, and Extension Office, Bohol Island State University. Industry Analysis of Buri Broom Making in Calunasan Calape, Bohol, accessed 2026-07-28.
• Cooperative status sourced from a 2023 news report on DOLE-7 livelihood grants to Bohol workers’ groups, which names the Calunasa Broom-Maker Association (CBMA) as a recognized recipient association. 10 Bohol workers’ groups get P6.5-M livelihood funding from DOLE, Philippine News Agency, accessed 2026-07-28.
• Research attempt (2026-07-28) for facts still unresolved — whether visitors can observe/participate in the process, travel time from Calape town proper to the production households, current per-piece prices, and any specific festival or market day tied to the craft: searched “Bentig Calunasan Mandaug broom making Calape Bohol,” “Ben-Cal-Man Calape Bohol,” “Calunasan Bohol broom making tourist visit tour buri broom price,” and the Cebuano/Tagalog term “walis buri Calunasan Calape presyo”; checked PhilAtlas, Wikipedia (Calape), bohol.ph municipal profile, DOLE/PNA news, Bohol Island News, and the 2015 BISU academic study in full. None address visitor access, current pricing, or a broom-specific festival/market day. One plausible-looking lead — the Cambuhat River & Village eco-tour, which does offer a broom-making demo to tourists — was checked and ruled out: it is a different, formally organized craft-tourism site in Buenavista municipality, not in Calape/Ben-Cal-Man, so it was not used. Not yet checked: local Facebook pages/groups for CBMA or the barangays, Google Maps reviews/photos for the area, and TripAdvisor — worth trying in a future pass.