| Meralco celebrates 106th anniversary |
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OLD black and white photographslining the walls greet you when you enter the Meralco Museum.  They date back decades spanning a century to a time when Manila was America’s tropical outpost in the Pacific, English was just becoming the lingua franca of the nation, and US soldiers were fighting pockets of resistance from Filipino nationalists in the countryside.
 But instead of Meralco company officials, most of the photos are the kind that you would take of buddies at work with your cell phone or digital cameras. More than about Meralco’s history, the photos speakmore about its employees, on whose shoulders the company’s success depended through the years. In an adjacent viewing room, a group of college students watches a video presentation of the company’s history, tailored for today’s generation that is bred on MTV pop culture and iPods.  But the star attraction of the museum tour is a replica of an electric streetcar or tranvia, the forerunner of today’s LRT and MRT. Visitors climb aboard and pose for pictures, getting a glimpse of how simple life was. Resembling more like today’s buses on EDSA than a railcar, it is a distant echo of what Meralco was once before when it opened for business in 1905. 2009 in Meralco history  On display on a shelf are several electric meters that date back to the early decades of the 20th century. They show how technology evolved through the years and how Meralco morphed from being a public transportation company into the giant utility that it is today and has played a key role in the life of the nation.  Between 2008 and 2009, two of the country’s biggest conglomerates San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) acquired shares in Meralco. SMC acquired the 27% stake of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in October 2008. Then in March 2009, PLDT acquired a 20% equity in the company from First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPHC). Under an investment and cooperation agreement, PLDT will vote as a bloc with the Lopez Group in Meralco’s board of directors. That’s comforting for Meralco’s army of linemen, who have formed the company’s backbone since Day 1 in 1903, as well as thousands of Meralco employees. Lopezes in control  “Siyempre gusto namin na Lopez ang may control dahil alam namin ang management nila,” says Peter, 25, on the sidelines of a linemen’s rodeo event, held in Meralco’s sprawling back lot to celebrate the company’s anniversary in March. A lineman for three years, Peter (he asked that his full name not be used) is waiting in line with his wife and three-year-old son for a joyride on one of the basket trucks that the company put out for the linemen’s families. The orange and white trucks are the ones that you see once in a while on the road, especially in the aftermath of storms.  Even with four basket trucks on the job, the waiting time is at least a half an hour, but no one minds. Everyone is thankful for the clouds and wind that ercifully cooled down an otherwise hot summer day. As if they’re in an amusement park, eager passengers take their turn in twos or threes, admiring the vista as the crane slowly rises up to 70 feet and then back down.  Peter is mindful of last year’s tumultuous annual stockholders’ meeting in which the Lopez Group fended off an attempted hostile takeover by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), which then had a 27% stake in Meralco. GSIS later sold its stake to food and beverage giant San Miguel Corporation in October that year. Assuring “Nag-aalala din kami siyempre dahil may bago sa management,” says Peter of San Miguel’s and PLDT’s entry into Meralco. But with two corporate giants now in the company, Peter feels that Meralco has grown stronger, which is assuring given the worldwide recession. Another lineman, Joel, who’s been with the company for six years, feels the same way. That sense of stability stopped him from leaving the company to try his luck abroad. “Muntik na nga ako mag-AWOL pero tumigil ako dahil sa recession,” says Joel, 30, as he takes joyriders up on the basket truck. “Pero naisip ko na matatag ang kumpanya at sigurado ang future ko.”  Down below, cheers, applause and laughter fill the air as hundreds of linemen participate in their own version of “Fear Factor.” It makes you wonder which is less frightening for them: climbing up a utility pole carrying hundreds of thousands volts of electricity or eating frogs. “Kalahati ng katawan mo ay nasa hukay,” says Peter about their job. But it’s an everyday risk that they’re willing to take and a fear that they’ve learned to live with –the same way generations of Meralco linemen before them did, whose pictures now grace the company museum. (Norman Sison) |
