Sustaining a salt-making tradition in Bohol

Sixty-three-year-old mangasinay or salt maker Rosendo Datoy and his wife and workers clean pots of asin tibuok or “whole salt” after they have cooled down overnight on the kiln and prepare them to be sold in Santa Filomena, Alburquerque, Bohol.

Now on the verge of vanishing, making asin tibuok is believed to be an old practice in the island province even before the arrival of the first Europeans to the Philippines.

The process is distinctive, and takes several days — from burning sea-soaked coconut husks and extracting a highly concentrated brine to reducing the brine into salt in small earthen pots over fire.

Many families used to be involved in making asin tibuok in several towns of Bohol. Presently, only four families in the town of Alburquerque are left engaged in the heritage practice.