Jose Aliling group takes the spotlight

JOSE Ramon P. Aliling (right) at one of the construction sites inspected by the group.

JOSE Ramon P. Aliling, CEO, Jose Aliling Group

In construction sites all over Metro Manila, it is hard to miss the signs that proudly declare: Jose Aliling Group, 100 percent Filipino-owned.

According to Jose Ramon P. Aliling, the 36-year-old president and CEO of the group of companies founded by his father, he insisted on prominently displaying the 100 percent Filipino-owned sign in front of every building or project that the company is involved in to show that Filipinos are as good as anybody else in the construction management business.

Aliling says that it is also his way of raising awareness of the significance of construction management firms and the crucial role that they play in making sure that multibillion-peso projects go up the way they are supposed to, on time and on budget, as promised by general contractors and subcontractors to the owners who foot the substantial development bill.

Construction management, however, remains a mysterious profession and known only to the companies and individuals involved directly in the country’s growing construction sector.

As Aliling puts it, the construction manager is employed by the project developer to help make sure that the general contractors and the multitude of subcontractors and suppliers that work with them are doing their jobs right.

Inspector was what the construction manager used to be called, but the description and title have changed given the expansion of its role.

The construction manager is responsible, for example, for coordinating the work of the sometimes over 120 contractors and suppliers that work on a building—from the plumbers and painters to electricians, and even those who install the interiors, such as the lights and the carpets.

Aliling says that most people usually see just the general contractor, with names such as D.M. Consunji Inc. and Datem Inc., and the architects behind these projects, but there are actually many more actors at work.

For large building projects, such as luxury hotels, residential and office buildings, there are at least 70 contractors and suppliers involved. More complicated projects can have over 120 contractors and suppliers working on them.

The huge responsibility of coordinating the work of the many names involved in these major development projects largely falls on the shoulders of construction managers such as the Jose Aliling group.

“We are there to protect the owner and make sure that specifications are being followed. In short, we are the eyes and ears of the owner,” explains Aliling.

It is a role that the Jose Aliling Group has been playing since 1992, when founder Jose Aliling struck out on his own and was tapped to be the construction manager of the Citibank Tower in Makati City.

THE JOSE Aliling Group has so far completed 150 projects.

From there, the Jose Aliling group has racked up an impressive track record in construction management, with projects such as the P3-billion Shangri-La Resort and Spa Boracay owned by Shangri-La International Management, the P3.2-billion Marco Polo Hotel Ortigas owned by Xin Tian Ti Development Corp., and the P3.4-billion Trinoma Commercial Center of the Ayala Group Inc.

In each of these projects, the Jose Aliling group seeks to play its role right, coordinating the work of suppliers and contractors so that there will be no back jobs and the objective of the owner is met, and that is to complete a project on time, at cost and at the quality that was promised.

Making sure that contractors and suppliers do what they are supposed to does not make construction managers like Jose T. Aliling very popular among those in the industry who want to cut corners and make a quick buck by putting in substandard work and pocketing the difference.

Construction managers likewise become targets of bribery, with crooked contractors wanting to buy their signature on the completion form. Some can also be paid to permanently look the other way.

Aliling believes that the group has been winning the trust of more developers because it has been able to develop a reputation for being responsible and reliable despite the many temptations that inevitably comes its way.

There is also the temptation to prefer certain bidders over others since construction managers are also tasked to handle the procurement and evaluation of bids—something outside the area of expertise of most building or project owners.

But the Jose Aliling group has put operating procedures in place that will protect the company against unscrupulous practices.

“We just have to think about the safety of the end-users,” explains Aliling, who came on board in 2003, when his father declared that he was letting go of the reins of the company to spend more time with the family, “In construction, everything should be measurable. There should be no discrepancy.”

To help bring home the point that construction management is a profession to be proud of and celebrated, Aliling went into branding the company, in the same way that architectural firms and contractors brand theirs.

“One of the first things I did was to declare that we are proud to be construction managers, that’s why we have those signs,” says Aliling, who was mentored well by his father.

Aliling describes his father as a simple person who loved his profession. And because of his background as a contractor, he knows how contractors operate, putting him in a good position to make a success out of construction management. He also came into the industry at the right time.

Citibank was one of the first “intelligent” buildings in the Philippines. And because of the experience of his father, the company was sought after by other developers that wanted intelligent buildings.

Aliling adds that being from the University of the Philippines also helped his father since the construction industry in the 1990s—perhaps until today—was dominated by graduates of UP.

D.M. Consunji founder David M. Consunji, for example, is a civil engineering graduate of UP, just like Jose Aliling.

Aliling was also very hands-on, taking only five projects at a time. He believed in handling only one project a day. So, since there are only five working days a week, he could only handle five at a time.

His son, who was the youngest president of the Construction Project Management Association of the Philippines, the only recognized professional organization for construction managers, is used to a different speed, however. Thus, the group under his command now handles 40 projects at the same time, with young engineering graduates deployed to handle the management work in different parts of the country.

Under his aggressive pace, the Jose Aliling group has worked on a total of 150 projects and counting.

When he joined the company in 2003 after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree from De La Salle University, the group had about 30 employees. Today, the manpower compliment has grown to about 200.

Aliling, who took over as CEO and president of the Jose Aliling group in 2007, says he was forced to quickly grow into the job because his father wanted to retire early.

“He was 55 years old when I graduated, and he said then that I had five years to learn because he was leaving in five years. My grandfather died at 61, so my father really thought he would also die at 61. He wanted me to take over so that he can have a few years left to enjoy himself, ” says Aliling, who also served as the youngest member of the Board of Advisers for the De La Salle University College of Engineering.

That decision has proven auspicious as Jose Aliling can now afford to sit back and watch with pride as his son takes the company further than even he imagined.