By Fernan Gianan
Inquirer
VIRAC, Catanduanes–The capital town of the storm-tossed island-province of Catanduanes is home to a young inventor who holds the patent for a cost-saving construction material that is now being used by local contractors and home builders.
Boxes of the prefabricated galvanized iron tie wire invented by 22-year-old Dexter Teope are being sold in hardware stores at P85 per kilo, saving construction companies or house owners more than 20 percent in labor costs.
In fact, the Japanese contractor of the multimillion-peso Gogon bridge project has indicated interest in purchasing the prefab tie wires.
What is now a promising business for Teope began as a worm of an idea when he was a 12-year-old Grade 6 student and playing at their neighbor’s house then being constructed. “I wondered why it took so long for a worker to cut and bend the tie wire when it could have been sold as a ready-made material,” he reveals.
He kept the idea at the back of his mind for the next several years, graduating from the Catanduanes Colleges as a computer technician. He went to Makati City to work as a waiter at Shangri-la Hotel.
After a year, Teope returned and began putting his ideas on paper — some simple and others so complicated that it required many moving parts. In January 2005, he finally applied for a patent of his invention at the Intellectual Property Office, paying a total of P2, 500 in fees.
On Nov. 18, 2006, he got Patent No. 2-2005-000060 for his prefabricated tie wire and began making a simple machine to make his product. He had already perfected a machine — built from P300 worth of small pipes, bearings and tire spokes—in Manila when he ventured to a 35-story condominium being constructed on España Avenue.
His sales pitch to the contractor worked so well that he was asked to deliver 10 tons of tie wire right then and there. Stunned by the offer, he regretfully told the buyer that he had only 10 kilos available.
Still, he took as a great inspiration the contractor’s advice to him that he must come back if he already had 10 tons.
Teope went back to Virac and had three more of the machines fabricated. He never went back to Manila to deliver the 10 tons; he decided to start small so he could see his business grow.
Today, his GT Manufacturing employs five households in Barangay Rawis, with mothers and even disabled youth cutting tie wire to standard lengths while watching TV at night.
At his parents’ house, Teope employs four machine operators and one packer, who altogether produce 140 kilos daily. Each box of 20 kilo-packs is sold for P75 per kilo to hardware stores, which sell them for P80 on retail.
The inventor’s father Osias, 63, a retired school principal, says his son — the middle of three children — could have inherited his inventive streak from his grandfather Telesforo, who did not finish schooling but was good at mathematics.
Among his other ideas — about 80 in all and carefully drawn on paper — are a seatbelt harness for tricycle drivers, a multicircuit connector to replace the junction box in electrical systems, and a head massager built from discarded electric fan covers.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
good
September 11th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
I wonder if any government agency would help this young genius once other people and countries start copying his invention and violate patent laws.
September 11th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Being a Filipino and small type of people, I know that we can not invent bigger things. But I hope that we can invent many more, but very useful little things that affordable to our own poor people. May the good Lord bless the man who had just invented something and I hope that his business will keep growing, so he may able to hire more people who are unemployed in the country.
September 10th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
[...] Being Filipino : Young inventor helps builders reduce costs [...]
September 10th, 2007 at 7:14 am
The invention of Telesforo Teope of GI tie wires is the type that could become a big boon to construction companies anywhere. This seminal concept should be considered byu the National Science & Technology, the Small Business Bureau and other government, as well as private agencies to help it achieve the maximum technical and business potentials for international promotion. Struggling inventors with promising products and processes must be embraced by the government, in coordination with the private sector and extend them support and protection. Surely, big business and government willl eventually benefit from it.
Maybe, a little time and energy spent by our lawmakers in probes and investigations can be diverted towards this less popular but promising aspect of our national profile. After all, elections ae still some distance away and maybe, jsut maybe, our more intelligent voters will recall their (the politicians) concern for the small ‘uns when their kind of help could spell the difference between commercial success and failure. There are other form of rewards when you try to perform deeds of altruism, even devoid of media fanfare.
Why not for example, create a multi-agency task group composed of the business sector, the academe, the government and the inventors. There can be a national or central but independent board, with regional and provincial-level sectors, with appropriate checks and balances. To help maintain its operatins, the organization should be given a certain percentage of the commercial proceeds, in partnership with the inventor, the funder and business promoters. Many variations can be adopted, but let us start exploiting the productive intellect of our people- The Teopes of the country. My congratulations to all small inventors like Mr. Teope and their supporters. Its people like him who are the acorns from which a rubost nation grows. 09/09/07
JIMMY E. ARCEBUCHE
11 Marlin Way, S. yarmouth, MA 02664
Email: arcebuche@yahoo.com