Away from home in San Miguel, Bulacan, he found solace after work hours by joining the company of elder boys in the neighborhood. From being regaled with stories of exploits, he later found more joy by joining them in drinking sprees and smoking cigarettes.
Soon, he was into another kind of enjoyment, and troubles, when he was introduced to another kind of “high” – puffing marijuana sticks – then later with “T-shirt,” the name they gave to “shabu”.
“I was work-efficient, but I knew I was into bad, very bad habit after work hours. I forgot my family. It was my two elder brothers who supported my mother and a younger sibling,” Viñas said in his reminiscence.
Not even a near-death jeepney accident, then driven by an equally “high” friend, made him kick the habit.
“I was confined in bed for six months because of fractured legs. But that didn’t change my ways,” Viñas said.
Until one day, at age 25, he strayed to the public market here and met a lady, Nancy, who was then tending her family’s rice store. It proved to be a huge turning point in his life.
“I was totally smitten by her beauty”, he confessed.
But Nancy blatantly said she didn’t like a drug addict. He said he would prove that what she was hearing about him wasn’t true.
“Right there, I resolved to kick the habit. It was really difficult. But let us say that because of my love for her, I did it,” Viñas, like a conquering hero, said.
After three years, they were married.
“I helped Nancy tended the rice store but it went bankrupt. She then decided to go to Taiwan, through an obtained loan, to work in a factory”, Viñas said.
It was, while staying with his wife’s parents and attending to their firstborn, that he decided to go into the production of a product he knew best making pastillas.
“It happened that my neighbor was selling carabao’s milk. With the use of kitchen utensils, and the resolve to make my product tasting differently from the others, I produced a few boxes of it,” he said.
When nobody minded his product, he started giving free samples to the buyers of the sourced-out chicharon (pork crackling) he was selling. Words soon spread that his pastillas was naiiba at masarap (different and delicious).
“Definitely, there was stiff competition in pastillas making with nearby San Miguel (Bulacan) lording over this business. But I made sure that my product would taste differently. I also stayed here along the Gapan-Olongapo Road where there was not much competition,” Viñas said.
Today, Viñas is proudly steering his establishment “Aying’s Pastillas” in Barangay San Fernando Sur here. Emphasizing in the label that his products are “home-made,” he has variances of his products that include pastillas de leche, ube de pastillas, special yema, pastillas buko pandan, caramel pastillas, pastillas de langka, pastillas de quezo,malunggay pastillas, and toasted pastillas.
He also developed his concoctions of frappe, smoothies, mocha green tea, ensaymada, halo-halo, lumpia wrapped in pastillas, pastillas-filled pizza, pastillas balls and empanada.
“I process about 300 liters of carabao’s milk daily,” Viñas said. “I have 23 workers who are provided with free living quarters and food,” he added.
From the front yard of his parents-in-law’s home, he has moved to his acquired two lots for his house and a processing plant. He has also put up an outlet in Gapan City.
With his wife Nancy assisting him, he plans to put up another outlet in Pampanga. Meanwhile, with his newly acquired pieces of equipment, he is perfecting new products.
With a smile, he said: “Indeed love conquered my bad habit. It is still love, love for my family, that keeps my entrepreneurship going up.”
He has two children.
