DOST Secretary Estrella Alabastro was warmly received in Cagayan State University (CSU) in Sanchez Mira by no less than the Honorable Napoleon Sacramed, mayor of the municipality, Vice-Mayor Benjamin Oroceo, and CSU chief executive officer Aurelio Caldez, PhD for her visit and ocular inspection of SET-UP project sites in Region 2.

In his remarks, Mayor Sacramed cited the DOST’s pivotal role in uplifting the welfare and livelihood of his constituents, and that Sanchez Mira will do all it can to repay the generous help and assistance extended by the Department through hard work and diligence. For her part, Ms. Acela Sacramed, the president of the Cagayan chapter of HATAW or Harnessing Appropriate Technologies to Assist Women, expressed great optimism that as a SET-UP beneficiary, her group is capable of generating greater production for its products because of their great numbers in the community, many of whom attended the reception.

After the reception, Secretary Alabastro personally inspected SET-UP beneficiaries such as the coco coir processing in CSU, Criselda’s Food Products in Aparri, Project HATAW’s seaweed processing facility in Buguey, and Carne Ybanag in Tuguegarao City. She also checked up on PAGASA monitoring stations in Aparri and Tuguegarao City.

Later in the day, Secretary Alabastro met with the staff of the DOST Region 2 Office led by Regional Director Urdujah Tejada. The next leg of this two-day trip saw the DOST Secretary and party inspecting SET-UP beneficiaries in the provinces of Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya, where she also met with officials of PSHS-Cagayan Valley Campus led by Director Salvador Romo.

Ongoing construction for the new PSHS-Cagayan Valley Campus in Masoc, Nueva Vizcaya

SET-UP, or the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program, is the DOST’s response to the national call to assist small and medium-scale industries by bringing to bear its range of S&T services including technical advisory, patent application, package design, process improvement, and financing.