Pottery is an ancient craft. When clay was found in Bulua, pottery also started in the western barangay of Cagayan de Oro City. Thus, the pottery of Cagayan de Oro is an old, traditional craft here.

A little more than 20 years ago, two master potters from Germany came to Cagayan de Oro and married two Filipino women. Both opened their own potteries and it did not take long for what were once two best friends to become best enemies. That may be tragic, but what is much more tragic for me personally is the behaviour against the local potters.

They came with their German knowledge and the insights they had learned there and immediately started importing their own clay from Germany and lecturing the local potters in the German style of know-it-allism. Unfortunately, it looks to me as if they only exploited the cheap labour of the Filipino workers in order to be able to export cheaply overseas for their own manufacturing companies and sell there.

That’s why I don’t visit the shop that still exists today, even though it has been wholly owned by Filipinos for several years now.

We visited the shops on the National Highway in Bulua with their traditionally produced pottery and an associated factory where bricks are mainly made. These seem to be in great demand at the moment.