Category: News

The College of the Holy Spirit of Manila (CHSM) and the Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education (Centex) have formed a partnership to provide high school education to the first batch of graduating students of Centex.

The CHSM-Centex High School will open its doors in June to students from Centex Tondo, Manila, as well as more than a hundred students from other “feeder schools” and neighboring elementary schools.

Centex is a program of the Ayala Foundation in cooperation with private companies and the Department of Education (DepEd). With two campuses in Tondo and Bauan, Batangas, Centex provides children from disadvantaged families with quality education equal to that of the country’s best public and private schools.

The school is set to honor its first batch of graduates in simple ceremonies on March 29 at the Onstage Theater in Greenbelt 1, Makati City.

The Missionary Congregation of the Servants of the Holy Spirit which manages the 92-year-old Catholic college is eager to welcome the Centex students into its community. The CHSM-Centex High School will be a coeducational institution that seeks to challenge young Filipinos’ intellect and foster their sense of moral and social duty.

Said CHS Manila president Sr. Eufracia Marcojos: “We will provide these students quality education that addresses the strengthening of both Gospel and Filipino values. We want to help create among our youth, servant leaders, discerning persons equipped with excellent skills, who are nurturers of their environment and proud to be Filipino.”

With these shared goals, the College of the Holy Spirit and Ayala Foundation’s Centex, believe that their partnership will produce generations of young Filipinos who will help build an empowered Philippine society in the years to come.

The country’s leading companies were recognized by business leaders across the Asia-Pacific in the annual Asian Wall Street Journal 200 (AWSJ 200) survey.

Now on its 12th year, the AWSJ 200, formerly known as Review 200, polls senior management, business owners, executives and professionals on the financial and corporate performance of 157 multinational companies and between 30 and 40 local companies each in 12 countries. The AWSJ 200 rates the overall leadership of these companies based on reputation, quality of products and services, management’s long-term vision, innovativeness in responding to customer needs, and financial soundness.

In the Philippines, Jollibee Foods Corporation retained its leadership ranking for the seventh consecutive year, followed by companies in the Ayala group including Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Ayala Corporation, and Globe Telecom in the top five.

Ayala Land, which was a new entrant to the top ten in 2003, rose from seventh to second place and was also recognized as first in reputation and management vision. It was cited for its strategy to address the needs of the lower and middle-income markets.

BPI, which led recent polls and awards of various regional financial publications, also climbed to third place from sixth place. The strong performance of the two companies underscored the strategic direction of parent company Ayala Corporation. Its telecommunications company Globe Telecom continued to be considered favorably in fourth place.

Other companies that made it to the top ten in the Philippines were Mercury Drug (sixth), GMA Network (seventh), ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation (eighth), San Miguel Corporation (ninth), and Smart Communications (10th).

In addition to the company leadership rankings, respondents were also asked for their business outlook for the year. More than half of them expressed confidence that business will improve in 2005 and more than 48 percent said they will increase company budgets. And while the AWSJ200 survey was conducted before the late December tsunami, the report said that the disaster wasn’t expected to pose a grave threat to Asian economies. Instead, issues of corruption, bureaucracy, and pollution were listed as having greater impact on national economies, and rising costs and poor economy were considered as serious threats to business success.

The United World Colleges (UWC), an international educational institution, in coordination with the UWC Philippine Alumni Network and the Ayala Foundation, Inc., is searching for a top-caliber fourth-year high school student interested in pursuing a two-year international baccalaureate course in Canada.

The selected student will be sent on full scholarship to the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific in Victoria, Canada.

Applicants must belong to the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class. Applicants and their parents must also attend the orientation session to be conducted by the Philippine Alumni Network on February 13 and 20, 2005 from 10 A.M. to 12 P.M. at Ayala Foundation, 10th Floor, BPI Main Building, Ayala Avenue corner Paseo de Roxas, Makati City.

For more details, interested parties may call Jen Perez of the UWC Philippine Alumni Network at (0919) 8442603 or Tito Rivera of the Ayala Foundation at 894-5620 local 104. Email inquiries may also be sent to the UWC Philippine Alumni Network [uwcphilippines@yahoo.com or info@ph.uwc.org] and tito@ayalafoundation.org. You may also visit the Philippine website at www.ph.uwc.org. For general information on the UWC movement, please visit the UWC site at www.uwc.org.

The US Agency for International Development/Philippines has awarded US$4.2 million (P231 million) to a multi-sectoral program that seeks to improve the quality of education and enhance the life and employment skills of young Filipinos in Mindanao.

The program, Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance (ELSA), is a three-year initiative of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) in cooperation with an alliance of Filipino non-government organizations, foundations, and private corporations. The USAID grant has been earmarked for project components of ELSA in support of the Department of Education and the local government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

In addition to addressing the educational and job training needs of out-of school youth, ELSA partners will provide teacher training, improve school infrastructure, enhance opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, and assist national and local government officials in implementing education policy reform. The program will benefit the ARMM provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Suli, Basilan, Maguindanao, and Lanao del Sur as well as the Zamboanga peninsula, Lanao del Norte, Cotabato City, Cotabato, South Cotabato, and Sarangani.

“There is a need to present a range of opportunities to help young people in Mindanao develop skills needed to become more active participants in a productive economy,” said Michael Yates, USAID/Philippines mission director. “This program will support local initiatives and build on the considerable local expertise and experience we are so fortunate to have in the Philippines.”

ELSA builds on IYF’s nearly 15 years experience working on development challenges related to children and youth in the Philippines, in close partnership with key local organizations. The alliance created through the ELSA program includes the following partners:

1. Ayala Foundation will develop a leadership training program that will encourage high school youth to implement community projects and participate in learning sessions and interfaith dialogues.

2. Consuelo Foundation will provide non-formal basic and technical education to out-of-school youth.

3. Petron Foundation and Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) will construct or repair 87 classrooms and provide equipment and facilities to target schools as well as educational assistance, teacher training, and health and nutrition programs.

4. South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO INNOTECH) will help improve the learning skills of students and instructional skills of teachers using technology-based learning strategies.

With the support of IYF and through collaboration with Mindanao based organizations, these key partners will develop and implement sustainable partnerships to increase access to quality education and livelihood skills. These programs will result in the increase of community-based learning opportunities, reintegration of out-of-school youth, expansion of teacher capabilities in the areas of Math, Science, and English, and school reform within the Mindanao region.

“IYF recognizes that multi-stakeholder partnerships have a greater impact in bringing about long-term improvements in young people’s lives,” said David W. Hornbeck, president and CEO of IYF. “With ELSA, we have established a strong core Alliance that will continue to address the education and livelihood challenges that affect this region.”

 The ELSA initiative also builds on IYF’s leadership over the past two years in collaborating with global, regional and local partners, including the Ayala Foundation and SEAMEO INNOTECH, to design and implement the successful Bridgeit program. Known as text2teach in the Philippines, this program is an initiative of IYF, Nokia, United Nations Development Programme, Pearson, and the Philippines Department of Education that employs the use of new technologies to improve the quality of teaching in learning in the Philippines.

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About the International Youth Foundation

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) is dedicated to supporting programs that improve the conditions and prospects for young people where they live, learn, work, and play. Since its founding in 1990, IYF has worked with hundreds of companies, foundations, and non-governmental organizations to scale up existing programs and build long-term strategic partnerships. Currently operating in more than 60 countries and territories, IYF and its partners have helped millions of young people gain the skills, training and opportunities critical to their success. More information on IYF can be found at www.iyfnet.org.

About USAID

Philippines USAID assists Philippine partners in five areas: economic reform and governance; conflict resolution in Mindanao and other areas vulnerable to violence; family planning, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases; environmental governance and energy; and access to quality education. USAID/Philippines also responds to humanitarian emergencies such as natural disasters. Over the past several years, USAID bilateral and other assistance to the Philippines has averaged $90 million per year. About 60 percent of the bilateral program is allocated to Mindanao.

Thirty-two artworks by 27 Filipino artists, many of which have never been seen by the Philippine public, are now on exhibit at the Ayala Museum.

Crossings: Philippine Works from the Singapore Art Museum chronicles close to one hundred years of Philippine art from Fabian de la Rosa’s portrait of Jose Rizal in 1902, the works of Fernando Amorsolo, H.R. Ocampo, Galo Ocampo, and Carlos “Botong” Francisco, to Nunelucio Alvarado’s Crossing in 2000.

The exhibit was officially launched on November 8 at a gala for Ayala Museum partners and donors highlighted by the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Ayala Foundation chairman Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Singapore Ambassador-at-Large and chairman of the National Heritage Board Prof. Tommy Koh. Crossings is the beginning of a five-year collaboration between the Ayala Foundation and Singapore’s National Heritage Board which aims to strengthen cultural ties between the Philippines and Singapore.

Commenting on the significance of the exhibit and partnership, Zobel said: “We are pleased to have helped pioneer a first: the return to our shores, if only for a limited time, of the Filipino artworks considered meritorious by the Singapore Art Museum. They are the ambassadors of the Filipino genius in the arts and of our collective Southeast Asian contribution to the arts of the world.”

The select number of paintings and sculpture from the permanent collection of the Singapore Art Museum represent three critical periods in the Philippines’ progress as a nation: before and after World War II (1930s-1960s), Martial Law (1972-1986), and post-EDSA 1 (1986-2000). Supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Singapore, Crossings is also part of Zero-In Transitions, the annual multi-sited exhibition consortium of the Ateneo Art Gallery, Ayala Museum, the Lopez Memorial Museum and Museo Pambata ng Maynila.

Prof. Koh noted that the title of the exhibition is appropriate because the artworks have crossed many boundaries from the time they left the Philippines to their exhibition at Ayala Museum and their eventual return to Singapore.

“Our Philippine art collection has always been displayed in a regional context,” Prof. Koh explained. “The works presented in this exhibition thus reflect the many choices that we have made in our attempts to understand Philippine art in relation to the art of the region. We hope that the collection will grow to enable Singaporeans to appreciate the richness and dynamism of Filipino artists and their art.”

Crossings is open to the public until June 12, 2005. The exhibition is accompanied by a 150-page full color exhibition catalog that is available for sale at the Museum Shop.

Ayala Museum was dedicated to the Filipino people in October as the high point of Ayala’s 170th anniversary. It is open on Tuesday to Friday from 9 AM to 7 PM and on Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM. For inquiries, please call 757-7117 to 21 or visit www.ayalamuseum.org.

Ayala Museum is set to revitalize the Philippine art scene as it brought together the local and international art communities for its inauguration.

The dedication was held on September 28 in an event hosted by Ayala Corporation and attended by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former Pres. Corazon C. Aquino, representatives from the museum’s local and international partners as well as donors, lenders, artists, and patrons of Filipino art.

The inauguration of the new Ayala Museum was the high point of Ayala’s 170th anniversary celebrating the Filipino.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala, chairman of Ayala Foundation under whose auspices the museum belongs, said: “The new Ayala Museum is a gift to the Filipino people. Its mandate has always been to serve the community and the nation. Through the museum, we help re-collect our past by bringing back to the country Philippine collections from overseas institutions to share with a local audience. We intend to bring home what has long been inaccessible to other peoples. At the same time, we want to re-present the future by situating contemporary Philippine art in the global arena, enhancing pride of heritage that could ultimately deepen our understanding of what it means to be Filipino.”

The museum’s dedication featured performances by homecoming Filipino musicians soprano Margarita Gomez, cellist Wilfredo Pasamba, pianist Albert Tiu, violinist Joseph Esmilla, the Philippine Children’s Choir from Mandaluyong and the San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra. During the program, images were projected on the ceiling and walls to depict historical highlights that are also represented in the exhibitions of Ayala Museum.

Pres. Arroyo opened the exhibits together with Mrs. Aquino and the museum’s principals. Inaugural exhibits include the famous dioramas and boat gallery; a definitive collection of Philippine ivory art from the 16th to 19th centuries; artworks of Fernando Amorsolo, Fernando Zobel, and Juan Luna; and watercolor albums of Damian Domingo and Justiniano Asuncion and actual dresses from the 18th and 19th centuries including loans from the collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago, the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, The Netherlands, the New York Public Library, the Intramuros Administration, the Bank of the Philippine Islands, and private collectors.

These exhibitions are further complemented by a series of lectures, studio classes, and interactive kiosks when the museum opens to the public on October 1.

Envisioned in the 1950s by Fernando Zobel de Ayala y Montojo, the new Ayala Museum is designed by Leandro V. Locsin Partners led by the late National Artist’s son Leandro Y. Locsin, Jr. Located at the corner of Makati Avenue and de la Rosa Street, Ayala Museum’s glass and granite-clad edifice is a stunning gateway to the redeveloped Greenbelt commercial center.

The museum’s vision and mission are articulated primarily by Mr. Zobel, its trustees, and a board of advisors composed of luminaries of Philippine art, history, and culture including Dr. Benito Legarda, Jr., National Artist Arturo Luz, fashion designer Josie Cruz Natori, and Ryan Cayabyab.

When the Ayala Museum reopens to the public on October 1, expect a larger, state-of-the-art venue that will be home to some of the country’s finest art and artifact collections here and abroad.

No less than four major exhibitions of international caliber will be showcased in time for the new museum’s inauguration on September 28. These include nearly 400 ivory sculptures from the 16th to the 19th centuries and three major overseas collections of Philippine watercolors and costumes from Europe and the United States, many of which have never before been exhibited in the country. In addition, multimedia and virtual exhibitions now enhance the museum’s existing collections.

The museum opens the doors of its new home to coincide with the celebration of Ayala’s 170th anniversary.

Recollecting the past
Located at the corner of Makati Avenue and de la Rosa Street as part of the redeveloped Greenbelt commercial center, the new Ayala Museum continues the tradition of the old museum which was designed by National Artist Leandro V. Locsin. The new museum was designed by Locsin’s architectural firm Leandro V. Locsin Partners, led by his son, Leandro Jr.

The new Ayala Museum is the culmination of the vision of Fernando Zobel de Ayala y Montojo who in the 1950s recognized the need to preserve and deepen Filipinos’ awareness and appreciation of arts and culture to inspire the country to move forward.

With well designed functional spaces and cutting edge technology, the new museum promises to put the Philippines and Filipino artists on the map of the international art community and to showcase Filipino works owned by museums and collectors abroad to the local public.

Explains Ayala Foundation chairman Jaime Zobel de Ayala, “The museum’s mandate has always been to serve the community and the nation. Through the museum, we help re-collect our past by bringing back to the country Philippine collections from overseas institutions to share with a local audience. We intend to bring home what has long been inaccessible to other peoples. At the same time, we want to re-present the future by situating contemporary Philippine art in the global arena, enhancing pride of heritage that could ultimately deepen our understanding of what it means to be Filipino.”

Most definitive collection
One of the museum’s inaugural exhibitions, Power + Faith + Image: Philippine Art in Ivory from the 16th to the 19th Century, is a result of the museum’s synergy with individual and institutional collectors from all over the country. Close to 400 major ivory images form the exhibit, making it the most definitive collection on this subject ever assembled to date.
Power + Faith + Image recalls the time when Philippines was considered the world’s major producer of Christian images in ivory. This Philippine ivory tradition, which is considered to have shaped the most beautiful and moving images, surpasses that of any other country for range, scope and sheer volume of production. Churches as well as private patrons in Spain, Mexico, Latin America and other Asian countries were supplied with these ivory images by master carvers from the Philippines.

Another major opening exhibition is Multiple Originals, Original Multiples: 19th Century Images of Philippine Costumes. This exhibition gathers for the first time the Damian Domingo watercolor album of Philippine costumes owned by the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Justiniano Asuncion watercolor album of Philippine costumes in the New York Public Library, and the Ayala Museum’s watercolor album of Philippine costumes attributed to the Damian Domingo atelier. Complementing the watercolor images are actual costumes from 18th and 19th centuries, including loans from the collections of the Newberry Library in Chicago, the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, The Netherlands, the New York Public Library, the Intramuros Administration, the Bank of the Philippine Islands and private collectors.

An international museum lecture series accompanies these inaugural exhibits.

Representing the future
Complementing these archaeological and ethnographic collections are the museum’s permanent collections and exhibitions spanning the country’s pre-history to modern times. In fine arts, the museum’s strengths are in the works of two 20th century artists, Fernando Amorsolo and Fernando Zobel. Enhancing these are works by 19th century artist Juan Luna. The new exhibition now includes works by Zobel and Amorsolo that the museum has been selectively acquiring to refine and fill gaps in the collection. For example, there are significant additions to the Zobel collection with major works from the 1970s, one of the strongest periods in Zobel’s career.

Those who have visited the old museum will also be pleasantly surprised by the careful renovation of the diorama exhibition. Representing critical turning points in Philippine history as identified by a panel of scholars led by the museum’s first director, Carlos Quirino, a total of 60 handcrafted dioramas were created in the late 1960s by artists and carvers from Paete, Laguna to form the core of the museum’s historical collections. They are now enhanced by a new multimedia People Power room which allows visitors to be part of “living diorama of moving images” from the creation of the republic to the tumultuous events that restored Philippine democracy in 1986.

The public can expect more exhibitions of international significance and an active program of intellectual exchange among our local and international colleagues. In November, the second round of inaugural programs brings back to the country, also for the first time, the Philippine collection of the Singapore Art Museum. A memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Heritage Board will be signed to facilitate continuing collaborations and exchanges of collections, knowledge, and expertise.

Over the years, the Ayala Museum has shifted from being strictly a museum on Philippine history to becoming an institution in which history and the arts interact and are given equal prominence. Now with a world-class facility and a renewed mission to recollect the country’s past and represent its future, Ayala Museum will soon serve as the locus of cultural interchange between similar institutions abroad and Filipinos.

Mr. Zobel adds, “The new Ayala Museum is a gift to the Filipino people. It’s the high point of this year’s anniversary celebration. It is a place for everyone with each visit assured of a wonderful learning experience. The museum chronicles the journey of our nation and it holds treasures that mirror a rich past and continuously evolving present artworks that are lasting legacies to our country. As Filipinos, we owe it to ourselves to recognize the value of our heritage.”

Ayala Corporation intends to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a Peso Five Billion fixed-rate 5-year bond offering. The issue will be rated by domestic credit ratings agency Philratings, an affiliate of Standard and Poor.

The proceeds of the issue will be used to refinance the Company’s future maturing debt obligations, a portion of which is denominated in foreign currency. Ayala’s decision to raise Peso-denominated funding is consistent with the Company’s strategy to shift a greater proportion of its borrowings to the local currency. It is also the Company’s way of contributing to the development of the domestic capital market by providing an investment option to local investors of significant size.

While Ayala is already seeking approval from the SEC, the Company retains the flexibility to launch the bond at the time when it feels the market is most receptive and favorable for a Peso issuance of this size. With close to P6.0 Bn in cash at the parent level and USD140.0 Mn in undrawn, committed credit facilities established by various financial institutions, the Company can adequately cover its maturing obligations up to next year. As such, the Company continues to be opportunistic in its fund-raising activities, enabling it to time the actual issuance when the conditions are favorable for one.

Ayala has mandated BDO Capital & Investment Corporation, BPI Capital Corporation, First Metro Investment Corporation, ING Bank, Land Bank of the Philippines, PCI Capital Corporation and Standard Chartered Bank as the Issue Managers for the bond offering.

Ayala Corporation also signed a P2.7 Bn Note Facility Agreement with a lending consortium to be funded by Banco de Oro Universal Bank‚ Trust Banking Department, Bank of the Philippine Islands, China Banking Corporation, Equitable PCI Bank Trust Banking Group, First Metro Investment Corporation, and Land Bank of the Philippines. This short- term, stand-by facility will provide the Company with additional capability in addressing its future liquidity and funding requirements and flexibility in timing the peso bond issue.

AyalaPort Makati, the first purpose-built data center in the Philippines, recently entered into an agreement with IBM, the company behind the IBM e-servers, by investing in the IBM iSeries servers, also known as the AS/400.

Through this investment, AyalaPort Makati aims to further enhance its services to AS/400 users, particularly Disaster Recovery and Application Hosting services that are AS/400-based.

This translates into cost-efficiency and cost-savings for AS/400 users who wish to have their own business continuity plans or enhance or upgrade their existing server capacities.

“Companies will no longer have to make their own investments in additional servers to be able to service their expanding requirements. We all know that investing in equipment is rather costly and not every company has the flexibility to make investments at all times nor at any time when their business requires it,” says Jimmy Son, sales and marketing head of AyalaPort Makati.

“We at AyalaPort Makati would make these investments for them, thus reducing their own capital investments. We would make these enhancements and upgrade requirements available, whenever they want them. As we have always been telling our customers, with us, they have the option to start small and just scale up as their business grows,” Son adds.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, inquiries on AyalaPort Makati’s business continuity and other hosting and managed services like data storage and performance management have significantly increased.

“Market demand showed that we needed to make more investments to enhance our delivery of business continuity services and other hosting applications. All we had to do was review the requirements our customers had and using those information available to us, we needed the iSeries to fully deliver the exact requirements of our customers to satisfy them,” Son says.

Given the costs involved in setting up one’s own data center, outsourcing IT requirements is an option companies should consider. Outsourcing to AyalaPort Makati’s digital haven offers the following benefits:

• Security. Its modern facilities offer the highest standards of physical security where only authorized personnel can gain access.
• This is matched by advanced hardware and software systems that monitor, analyze and audit server activity and prevent unauthorized network intrusions or other abnormal activity patterns.
• Continuity. Businesses that will locate their servers and applications in AyalaPort Makati’s data center will be given assurance that their systems are protected from interruptions triggered by security breaches, power outages, system errors, floods and seismic events, or even internal labor strife. AyalaPort Makati give new meaning to 24×7 uninterrupted operations.
• Agility. AyalaPort Makati operating environment provides the agility to adapt to fast-changing technology.
• AyalaPort Makati is committed to investing in and deploying advanced technologies and sharing them with customers. Customers need not continually invest in expensive technologies, in capacities beyond what they need. They can start small and scale up as their business progresses.
• Stability. The Ayala name is AyalaPort Makati is the best guarantee for stability. The Ayala name has become synonymous with professionalism and high standards of excellence.
• AyalaPort Makati’s partnership with leading technology providers assure customers of the latest technologies and long-term support, no matter what platform they choose.

The Cabinet Committee of the Investment Coordinating Council granted first-pass approval to the Carmen Water Supply Project in its meeting on April 29.

The P1.9-billion Carmen Water Supply Project proposes to supply an average of 50,000 cubic meters per day to the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) from Luyang River in Carmen, Cebu. A consortium of Ayala and Stateland, Inc. submitted the unsolicited Build-Own-Operate (BOO) proposal.

The Carmen project is expected to boost Cebu’s supply level by as much as 35 percent. Cebu currently receives about 275,000 cubic meters of water per day from MWCD and private deepwells.

Said MCWD chairman Ruben Almendras, “The Carmen project will increase MCWD’s water supply by 26 percent and address the underserved demand for water connections, which we receive at the rate of 1000 applications per month.”

Metro Cebu is expected to benefit most from the project. Experts familiar with Metro Cebu’s water situation observe that the Carmen project can stem the demand on Cebu’s battered aquifer, which provides 90 percent of the total water supply. The aquifer is overmined by an estimated 95,000 cubic meters per day, or more than a third of its current production, resulting in increased water salinity. At this rate, Cebu may experience dry taps in 10 years and irreversible ecological damage by 2025.

Almendras noted that after studying available options, the Carmen project was identified to have the shortest timetable in terms of delivery and most cost-effective means in developing sources of surface water. The project, if approved, is expected to be operational in 2007.

Analysts see the project as part of Ayala’s expansion in the water business. Ayala is the biggest shareholder of Manila Water Company (MWC) which is the current the concessionaire of the East Zone in Metro Manila. Since it won the concession a privatization bid in 1997, MWC has decreased systems loss from 68 percent prior to privatization to 51 percent in 2003. It also increased connections to 515,000 households. From only 26 percent in 1997, about 83 percent of its households now enjoy uninterrupted water flow 24 hours a day. In 2003, MWC’s net income rose to P1.2 billion due to improved billed volumes and cost efficiencies.

Ayala managing director Antonino T. Aquino said, “The additional supply addresses a very frequent complaint of Cebu’s business sector which is lack of water. It will enhance development of Cebu’s economy as the project reduces overmining by 50 percent and buys Metro Cebu time to develop other sources of water. In addition, having connections to MCWD will allow the less fortunate sector to save on water expenditure as they cut off dependence from ambulant vendors.”

Following the ICC’s first approval, the consortium of Ayala and Stateland, Inc will finalize its agreement with MCWD through a draft contract. MCWD will then conduct a public hearing and will subject the contract to a review by the ICC and the Presidential Legal Team. Once approved, the agreement will be subjected to a price challenge before the final award.