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Taking it easy at home isn’t the way Elson Abuzo and wife Fely decided to spend their retirement.
After losing their rented carenderia space in P. del Rosario Street, Cebu City, they turned their food stall into a a mobile “pungko-pungko,” selling cooked food in a roving bicycle cart.
Elson, 70, retired in 2003 after working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as a safety consultant of the Ministry of Petroleum.
The couple decided to find ways to earn income instead of just waiting for his pension.
Fely, 68, ran the downtown carenderia while Elson was abroad. This went on for years until their children graduated and got married.
"We had to give up that space because we were just renting it. We settled on delivering food to Atlas employees until we decided to put up a small stall outside the University of San Carlos (USC)," she said.
“We tried to stop selling. We thought that anyway we have already sent all of our seven kids to school and they finished their degree courses except for some who got married early. But we felt even more bored and tired not doing anything other than house chores so we decided to start selling again,” Fely said.
The couple started with a makeshift store in September 2008 outside the USC North Campus in Mango Avenue where they sold siomai, ngohiong, puso (hanging rice), and food items like noodles and snack items.
Sales were good as people working in offices nearby, including USC students, would patronize the stall, especially the siomai and ngohiong.
“I remembered our first day . We gained P150 to P200 and that increased everyday,” he said.
Elson then thought of a different approach to increase sales.
He noticed that there were many buildings under construction all over Cebu City, potential vending sites for workers.
“So I thought of the mobile pungko-pungko which we really started in January this year during the Sinulog celebration,” he said.
They spent t P5,000 for the roving stall, which includes a bicycle with a side car, a portable gas stove, a folding table and chairs, a cooler, and a glass display shelf all loaded on the “trisikad.”
The total investment reached P16,823.
While Fely took care of their university outlet, Elson drives the mobile pungko-pungko around the city.
The couple was then offered a stall inside the USC campus because the school administration wanted to clear the area near the waiting shed occupied by vendors.
“So for the meantime we are settled here right in front of the basketball court and once the food complex construction is done, we will be moved there,” he said.
Despite the opportunity posed by the new development, the couple saw that their move into the school campus lost them off-campus customers working in other offices.
So the couple decided to hold on to their mobile pungko-pungko , which gives them flexibility and an income source when the school is closed for holidays and weekends.
At present, they earn about P3,000 daily with the roving carenderia.
“Kung walay klase wala man mi halin diri so ang among gibuhat adto mi sa among pungko-pungko,” Elson said.
The couple’s entrepreneurial skills influenced their eldest child, Ellen Abuzo-Rebusit, who is also one of the food vendors at USC.
“I'm a real estate broker by profession but I'm also selling here because it's a rare opportunity,” said Rebusit
“Not all parents were offered by the principal to put up a stall here. I have two kids studying here so this makes it also very convenient for them.”
The Abuzo couple find themselves still healthy with an active lifestyle because of their small business.
Their unique mobile store also made them win a TV contest as one of the top 10 entrepreneurs of the Kapamilya Negosyo Na Season 4.
They won P10,000 cash as assistance to grow the business and another P5,000 for their business permits and registration.
According to Elson, he plans to buy another trisikad to extend their reach to more customers.
“It will be a big help if we can have another trisikad. By the time we will be transferred to the food complex in USC, our rental will also increase from P3,000 a month to P5,100 including electricity,” Fely said.
