On March 14. 1903. the Manila
Electric Railroad and Light Company (MERALCO) was incorporated in the Slate
of New Jersey The incorporation followed Ordinance No. 44 of the Municipal
Board of Manila, which was passed on March 24. 1903, granting Detroit entrepreneur
Charles M. Swift a franchise "to operate an electric steel railway service
and to furnish electric current for light, heal. and power in the city
and its suburbs. Thus began a saga of service -- moving people in tranvias
and autobuses for over four decades and providing electric power for ten
decades.
In 1919. Meralco and
its affiliate operating the Pasig line of the street railway network reorganized
and merged into a single new entity, this time incorporated in the Philippines
under the name Manila Electric Company, the official corporate name it
bears today.
The Meralco tranvia or electric
streetcar was inaugurated in 1905. the basic street railway network, about
63 kilometers or slightly less than 40 miles of track, spurred the migration
of people to the less inhabited areas such as Pasay. Paco, Sta. Ana. Pandacan.
Caloocan, San Juan. and other suburban areas. Meralco’s street railway
network served not only the areas formerly traversed by the horse cars
in the city and the steam tramway to Malabon, but also other important
and emerging sections of the city. It further lined outlying districts
such as San Lazaro beyond Dalumbayan in the north, Sta. Mesa and Sta. Ana
in the east and beyond Malate to the approaches of Pasay in the south.
With this, Meralco represented
a truly pioneering developmental investment by private capital and enterprise.
The Company's streetcar system itself was described as state of the art
and second to none in East Asia.
Today, a century later,
Meralco continues this spirit with a continuous five-year electric system
upgrading and expansion program. The program ensures the dispatch of optimum,
reliable service to the franchise which presently covers 9.337 square kilometers,
including 22 chartered cities and 89 Municipalities. As of April 2002.
Meralco serves over 3.8 million registered customers.
As the largest single investment
of any nationality in the Philippines 100 years ago, Meralco continues
to be one of the Philippines' largest corporations, with total assets of
Php 1367 billion as of June 2002 Meralco looks forward to continuing its
mutually beneficial historic partnership with its customers to bring the
Philippines to greater development in the 21st century and beyond. What
we were then, what we are now - Meralco will always be "bahagi ng ating
buhay.” |