LILOAN, CEBU—At a time of unprecedented disruptions on the country’s economic and health systems brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, one chief executive went beyond just ensuring the survival of her companies.
Fe Barino also looked into the welfare of her employees as well as the people in communities that needed help.“I am just in a position to be a catalyst,” said Barino, president of the Duros Group of Companies (DGC), a Liloan-based conglomerate composed of 11 companies that range from construction, real estate, trading to education.
Not that her group was spared from the crisis that started in 2020.
She recalled that they had to temporarily stop operations during the lockdown last year that was imposed by local officials to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
But even then, the company gathered resources to extend financial assistance and bags of rice to their more than 1,000 employees.
Realizing that they didn’t know how long the lockdown would last, Barino said they decided to retire a number of their employees and give them severance packages based on their length of service, so they had money to tide them over.
A month after restrictions started easing, Barino said they started rehiring employees starting with their construction company—Duros Development Corp.—which is the largest in Cebu. Their work had resumed since most of their projects were outside Cebu City, which was considered the epicenter.
But even during the lockdown when many of their construction workers were stranded in their bunkhouse in Liloan, Barino thought of something productive for them: training on values formation and life skills.
Fe Barino
Multiple skills training
Under the Duros Academy Center, the workers underwent multiple skills training aside from values formation that included spiritual and character building.
The skills training focused on what were needed in construction—masonry, plumbing, electrical, carpentry among them—so the workers would have two or more skills.
After the two-month in-house training, the workers then went to the construction site for an on-the-job training for four months.
They later extended their training program to other people, including recovering addicts, who wanted to work in construction.
Barino was the force behind Surrender to God (SuGod), a 10-day community-based drug recovery and renewal program that combines scientific, educational and spiritual elements in a nonthreatening and loving environment that will encourage former drug users to start living a clean life.
Since the SuGod program started in August 2016, it has helped hundreds of individuals who chose to live their lives free from the bondage of illegal drug use.
According to Barino, their training program has already produced about 80 graduates who were given priority in hiring at the Duros Development Corp.
Barino, chair of the Commission on the Laity of the Cebu Archdiocese, was also involved in feeding programs in communities that had been put on lockdown due to the pandemic.
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