Here's a piece I wrote for the Business Mirror a couple of years ago. I still find it relevant, so I'm reposting it here. My apologies for the lack of visuals.

With the demand for sturdy low-cost housing steadily rising, attributed in part to the dream of Filipino migrant workers to own their own homes in the motherland, property developers are turning to foreign technologies—such as prefabricated materials—that allow the fast-tracking of construction, thereby cost-efficient.

Not Hilario N. Abbatuan, though. This mechanical engineer from the north says he is sticking to indigenous technologies for housing and good, old and solid concrete to do the job.

Abbatuan, fondly called Larry by friends and family, says he can finish a house in as short a time as 24 hours through a system he has developed—the H.N. Abbatuan Form System.

“With my system, I not only finish a unit faster than the conventional method of constructing a house—from laying down concrete for a foundation to the installation of galvanized iron sheets to form a roof—the house also comes out cheaper by about 30 percent,” Larry says.

Forming dreams

The use of the word “form” in the system’s name is not without basis, Larry explains. It turns out the system relies heavily on forms—much like molds—that dictate how a house will be built and how it will look like.

Larry says the proper name for the system is “cast-in-place” since the foundation, walls and roofdeck—yes, almost all the units he has built since the founding of his company, H.N. Abbatuan Builders, have solid concrete slabs as roofs—are literally cast in place using the forms or molds.

“The Abbatuan System entails the designing of a complete house form that allows the simultaneous concrete pouring of walls, partitions, beams and columns. The effect? Uniform distribution of strength for the whole house,” he explains.

The system does not use hollow blocks and plywood girders, two elements vital in the conventional way of constructing a house that Larry labels as “unnecessary expenses.”

“Construction sites are very chaotic and materials often get bruited about. Hollow blocks, being very weak, crumble easily when care is not exercised. At the end of a construction period, a contractor usually finds himself straddled with the loss of hollow blocks and, thus, more expenses,” Larry points out.

“It’s the same with plywood and other lumber. Once it’s used to form a cast to hold and form concrete, the wood is virtually useless—it can’t be used again,” he adds.

Fast and furious

The Abbatuan Form System is also labor efficient, requiring only 12 workers to build a single 36 square meter to 72 square meter house in 24 hours. Larry also boasts that his company can build a medium-rise apartment building, from foundation to roof, in about 90 days.

Larry’s claim has been proven several times in the recent past, at housing sites in Quezon City, Manila, and Muntinlupa with the help of local governments.

He has also participated in building homes for the less fortunate through the National Housing Authority, which has recognized his system with a certificate under the Accreditation of Indigenous Technologies (AITECH) program of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

The goodwill he has fostered with the government, however, is not without its downside. Larry recalls a time he built a mass housing project for a local government but did not get paid.

“I even got sued. But the circumstances leading to this problem is a different story and cannot be talked about—for now,” Larry explains.

At present, Larry is engaged in projects in General Santos City, where he hopes to recover from the aches of projects that failed “through no fault of mine.” He is also on the prowl for a good challenge, someone who can dare him to a contest on who can build a house the fastest.

“I want the chance to prove that the Filipino can innovate and use the products of his considerable intellect to help his countrymen. I am surprised—and disheartened at the same time—to learn that many Filipinos still turn to everything foreign for solutions to their woes,” Larry says, referring to the foreign housing technologies now flooding the market.

“What the Abbatuan Form System proves is, what foreigners can do, the Filipino can do better,” he adds.

The coconut tree is again proving its worth as a source not only of medicinal or therapeutic products, such as virgin coconut oil, but also of alternative construction materials, primarily lumber and leaves that can be woven into sturdy roofs and walls.

The Department of Science and Technology, however, has found another breakthrough in the construction industry from the once-lowly coconut—the “coco coir board.” Made entirely of coconut husk, the board is different from your run-of-the-mill paneling boards in the sense that it does not need synthetic chemicals, adhesives or cement as binders.

Aside from this unique aspect, the coco coir board’s production process is environment-friendly, said Dr. Dwight Eusebio, a senior researcher at the Forest Products Research and Development Institute in Los Baños, Laguna.

Although the board is recommended only for indoor paneling, it still entails a strict production process so that its binding property is achieved and maintained, Eusebio said.

“Milling and drying of fibers and hot pressing of the board are the critical processes for the technology. Coconut husks should go through a milling machine, passing a two-millimeter screen, and the fibers must pass through a dryer with a moisture content of between eight percent and 10 percent,” he said.

“Since there are not binders or other chemicals used, the production cost is cheaper, translating to cheaper selling prices. The manufactured sizes are 600 millimeter by 1,200 millimeter, or two feet by four feet, and 900 millimeter by 1,800 millimeter, or three feet by six feet,” Eusebio added.

Eusebio said the technology was also being used in different panel products, like particle boards, plywood, oriented strand boards, and medium-density fiber boards bonded with petroleum-based resins or cement.

“The technology can be transferred through outright sale, royalties, demonstration and piloting, and training. It is ready for diffusion but if commercial production is being planned, specific tests, like termite and fungi resistance of the boards on a long-term basis, should be determined,” he said.

“Also, if the boards are being planned for use as exterior panels or in rooms where humidity is high, exposure tests should be done to determine the durability of coco coir binderless boards. Since most of the equipment for the production of the coco coir board are already available, the transfer of the technology to existing particle board manufacturers is being encouraged,” Eusebio added.

The Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development, an attached agency of the Department of Science and Technology, is overseeing the project.