Manila Water Company: Our People

Our People

Our People Concern for others. That’s what Manila Water people stand for. Honed by years of service at the old MWSS and shaped further by a corporate culture that gives a premium to caring for customers, the company’s employees – all 1,549 of them as of March 28, 2008 – have been moved by a single mission: to be able to render the best possible service to the public it serves in Metro Manila’s East Zone.

When privatization took place back in 1997, former MWSS employees, who make up most of the current workforce, were transformed into a more dynamic, responsive and caring service provider. Manila Water, which took over the East Zone concession, saw to it that these employees became the people it needed to make the business venture succeed.

Right after the private company took over, it implemented a series of programs all designed to develop its human resource, from values reorientation to upskilling to quality and productivity and, ultimately, to the more specific programs that developed specific skills and business core competencies.

The company’s faith in its people paid off. Despite being saddled with unexpected problems that adversely affected the concession at its early stages, among them the Asian currency crisis and the El Niño phenomenon, Manila Water was able to survive – and later thrive – primarily because of the commendable work and efforts of its people. Customers began to notice the change in the improved quality of the service they received, and this change for the better soon became the standard for which Manila Water has been known.

The “We Care” mantra that the company later adopted became a natural. A set of customer service standards also became a logical extension of this mantra that focuses on caring for people, both outside and inside the organization.

Perhaps the most telling indication of the quality of people that the company now nurtures is the number of outstanding workers that it has produced since it took over in 1997. Ten of these workers have been chosen as the company’s model employee, or Huwarang Manggagawa, awardee. From the ranks of these model employees and their colleagues, seven have gone on to win the prestigious The Outstanding Workers of the Republic or TOWER Award, including two who won at the same time in 2006 to help Manila Water duplicate a record of sorts as one of the very few companies to pull off this feat in the 32-year history of the awards program. The seven TOWER Awards that include the latest – that of Nestor Suganob for 2007 – are one of the most for any company, and, to this date, account for the only such award, which bestows honors to the best blue- and white-collar workers in the country, for any company under the Ayala Group. These outstanding workers are as follows:

Huwarang Manggagawa Awardees

1998 – Wolfredo Macasaet
1999 – Bonifacio Calamiong
2000 – Ricardo Pile
2001 – Maidy Lynne Bautista
2002 – Roberto Nabo
2003 – Fedilita Rosario
2004 – Jaime Opider
2005 – Alexander Galang
2006 – Nestor Suganob
2007 – Ernesto Labanza

TOWER Awardees

1999 – Wolfredo Macasaet
2001 – Jerrybell Serquiña
2003 – Roberto Nabo
2005 – Jaime Opider
2006 – Alexander Galang and German Anobling
2007 – Nestor Suganob

Indeed, Manila Water has become the breeding ground not only for competent and caring people but also for outstanding employees who can hold their own in the big market. If one needs a proof that the company is bound for bigger things, he just has to look at these individuals to be able to say that, yes, the people making up Manila Water can’t help but make it better, and capable of going even beyond the limits of its current reaches.

THE COMPANY’S MANAGERS: AS GOOD AS THEY GET
Anybody who gets the notion that the high caliber of Manila Water employees is due in part to the equally capable leadership they get cannot be more accurate. This may readily be validated by the fact that in 2004, the company’s top management felt compelled to institute two awards that would give due recognition to that capability of its managers.

The C2 Award (for Chairman’s Circle) and the P3 Award (for President’s Pride due to Performance) – so named after the company’s two highest officials – were established precisely to send the message that Manila Water can also be proud of its senior and middle-line managers, who have exercised such an effective leadership that the company has enjoyed its most productive years yet in its history, culminating in its public listing in March 2005 and its being adjudged as the Outstanding Employer of the Year by the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines in 2006. And this kind of success has also been validated by numerous other awards and recognitions, like the company’s selection as the Philippines’ Best-Managed Company in the small capital category by Asiamoney Magazine in December 2005 and 2007, the Asian Corporate Social Responsibility Award for Best Workplace Practices in September 2006, the Asian Water Magazine Management Excellence Award in the industry category in March 2006, the Communication Excellence in Organizations or CEO EXCEL Award for no less than President Antonino Aquino in November 2006, and the award for “Strategic Visioning and Partnership for Business and Job Survival” from the Employers Confederation of the Philippines’ Kapatiran sa Industriya or KAPATID Awards in March 2007 as well as one of the awards from the Corporate Governance Asia Annual Recognition Awards later in the year.

The C2 Award, named in honor of Manila Water Board Chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala, recognizes managers with the rank of department manager who have turned in an “excellent and outstanding performance” in all performance areas they handle. These include business and support competencies, managerial effectiveness, human relations skills, personal attributes, and quantity, quality, timeliness and effectiveness of work output. Some eleven senior managers were honored with the prestigious award during its inception in 2004, another 16 were similarly recognized in 2005, 14 were picked each time in 2006 and 2007, and a record 20 were selected in 2008.

The P3 Award, so labeled after President Aquino, on the other hand, gives recognition to middle-line managers and specialists who have excelled in their own areas of responsibility. Making up the criteria in this award program are work performance, which constitutes 40 percent; corporate impact of contributions, which consists of 30 percent; and adherence to corporate values, including work ethics worth emulating and people management skills, which makes up 30 percent.

A total of 34 honorees made it to the inaugural list of P3 awardees in 2004, 59 more were similarly honored in 2005, 77 earned the honors in 2006, and a record 78 were chosen for the distinction in 2007.

Mr. Aquino once summed up the lofty standards against which the company’s managers are measured when he said, “It is not just the performance element that we (are) looking at. In reality we (are) looking for who will be good models as far as the organization is concerned. It is now a lot more important because the demands on us as an organization and as a management team are a lot higher as compared to what (they were) before.”

Of course, there can be no doubt that the company’s managers, as exemplified by the C2 and P3 winners, have measured up to these high standards.

2007 Chairman's Circle Awardees

Noelito Abesamis**
Rodrigo Abinsay
Marilou Bago**
Abelardo Basilio****
Rosenni Basilio***
Encarnacion Buenaventura
Selwyn Cabaluna*
Jose Cadorna
Loida Diño**
Glorina de Castro****
Ma. Fiorella Fabella***
Ernesto Francisco
Nestor Gabot*
Daisy Garcia
Evangeline Matibag
Estelita Orodio*
Marvin Panday
Allan Patdu**
Esmeralda Quines***
Frederick Reyes***
Nestor Jeric Sevilla Jr.**
Annabella Simbulan*

Legend: ****Five-time winners

***Four-time winners

** Three-time winners

* Repeat winners

2007 President’s Pride due to Performance Awardees

Eduardo Agapito**
Edna Aguirre*
Camela Alfonso
Anna Romelyn Almario*
Jewel Austria*
Marnellie Bautista
Noriel Catipon
Carlo Cruz
Ernesto Cruz
Angel Cutaran
Lourdes Dayap*
Lourdette Descalzo*
Alfredo Desiderio
Nerissa Dimatulac
Ronia Dionisio**
Vertudes Duque*
Belinda Elarmo
Rafael Facto*
Grace Galang
Jaime Galinato*
Magno Gamboa
Tito Rafael Gamurot**
Isabelita Garcia*
Rosemarie Garcia
Diana Dulce Garing
Marvin General
Oscar Glean*
Olimpio Gusi**
Baltazar de Guzman**
Patricia de Guzman
Shiela Mae Herida
Barny Kim
Carla May Kim
Lina Largo
Ma. Concepcion Lising*
Mario Lising
Gerardo Lobo II
Renee Locayon*
Valentino Lorenzo
Ivson Manuel
Leonald Mararac*
Ma. Teresa Marcelo
Sharon Marcial*
Rubi Eileen Martir*
Mark Gil Medina*
Felipe Mendoza
Armando Mingua*
Jose Molina*
Ronald Muaña
Archie Mutyangpili
Ma. Rosario Nacion*
Miguel Nool Jr.
Peter Opeña*
Mark Orbos
Leo Pagtakhan
Jane Pascual
Amelia Pineda**
Joseph Arthur Prudencio
Annabel Rebosora*
Maritess Regala
Mario Cecilio Resurreccion**
Edgar Rugas
Janice Ruiz**
Venerando Sacdalan Jr.**
Danilo Saldua
Frederick Sangalang*
Edgar Sañosa*
Jocelyn Santiago***
Melinda Santos*
Elizabeth Sevilleno*
Kristine Lea Siy
Josefina Sta. Maria
Allan Suba
Melvin John Tan*
Edgar Teresa**
Bonnie Ty***
Ma. Salvacion Velasco*
Rodette Villavicencio

Legend:
** Three-time winners

* Repeat winners

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