As this is the 25th year of SCMAP, it is useful to go back to where it all began. In recalling the history of SCMAP, I go back to one afternoon in August 1989 when ten individuals from ten manufacturers got together in the office of Procter & Gamble Phils at Paseo de Roxas in Makati.
The ten got together because they all felt helpless in the face of huge domestic shipping rate increases recently granted by the Maritime Industry Authority to the domestic shipping lines, then collectively known as the Conference of Inter-Island Shipowners and Operators (CISO). CISO was led then by its president, the late Paciencio “Boi” Balbon.
The 1989 rate increases varied in magnitude for different items but ranged from +25% to +100%. What? Why was that possible? Well, those were the days of the domestic shipping cartel, as well as regulatory capture. Mr. Balbon admitted to the term cartel to me at a later time. The first battle of DMAP was against CISO again, which had asked the MARINA for a +39% increase in 1990.
Like the starting five of an NBA basketball team, the DMAP team worked hard and jelled together.
The outcome of the 1990 hearing at MARINA was very important. It would set the tone for future hearings. CISO would have to contend with an oppositor, where there was none before. Increases in succeeding years were tempered because of the oppositor. Later a regulation was adopted for automatic fuel adjustments – rate increase when fuel prices increased beyond a benchmark, and … Rate decrease when fuel prices decreased.
In the long term, the creation of DMAP / SCMAP prevented unbridled escalation of domestic shipping rates. Can you imagine if today’s rates were 20 to 30% higher?
But back to the “starters”.
Who were the ten “starters”? Where are they now? Here is the roster:
ANTONIO A. ABELLERA Procter & Gamble Phils.
CAMILO G REYES Unilever Phils.
RENATO SIMPAO Colgate Palmolive
SIMPSON GO Nestle Phils.
MANDY GUERRERO Coca Cola Bottlers Phils.
CLODOVEO NACORDA La Tondeña Distillers, Inc.
REMIGIO CALINGAL C C Unson
QUEZON CHUA Eveready Battery
MALOU C. SANTOS Johnson & Johnson
ED SANCHEZ San Miguel Corp
We are looking for the starters. Perhaps we can give them some recognition. Except me, as I have already received recognition, the others deserve some applause.
We invite readers who might know some of them to feed back any information you have on where they are now.
Supply Chain Mornings
SCMAP continues with its Supply Chain Mornings series. The next one is a half-day session on inventory management which seeks to give participants the basic tools for prioritizing stock items and setting up of policies and rules to balance availability of stock to meet customer expectations and company investments in inventory. Topics include general methods in managing inventory, categorization techniques and customer-driven inventory policies and strategies.
Schedule – 19 Jun 2014, 8 am to 12 noon
Venue – Astoria Plaza, Pasig City
Resource speaker – Al Lagera, Materials Management Division Head of East Manila Hospital Managers Corp
Fee – SCMAP members P1,500, Non-members P1,875
Address inquiries and comments to Ed Sanchez at tel. 671-8670, fax 671-4793, cell 0918-914-1689, or email secretariat@scmap.org. For more information please go to SCMAP website www.scmap.org
