The Empowered Woman of Cabanatuan

ROSANNA V. VERGARA is a quintessential modern empowered woman. Besides being the president of Cabanatuan Electric Corporation (CELCOR), Vergara or Ria to her friends and kin is the president and chief executive officer of First Cabanatuan Ventures Corporation (FCVC).

CELCOR supplies the power requirements of Cabanatuan City, while FCVC operates the power plant in Barangay Mampulog, Cabanatuan City.

Judging from the “International Award for Leadership in Image and Quality” bestowed on CELCOR by the Global Trader Leaders’ Club on December 1, 2014 in Madrid, Spain, and the impact of the two power facilities on the social and economic development of Cabanatuan, Ria indeed, is doing her man-sized jobs, so well. Hailed as Cabanatuan’s twin engine of economic growth, CELCOR and FCVC contributed immensely in making the once underdeveloped metropolis, a new haven for investors.

Impressive Credentials

A full-blooded Cabanatueña, Ria is a holder of Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management with honors from the Ateneo de Manila University, Associate Degree in Apparel Production Management, summa cum laude from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City, USA and MBA Degree from the Harvard Graduate School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Ria’s successful and fruitful career in the corporate world started in 1985 when she was hired as production coordinator by NATORI, a women’s fashion designer and manufacturer based in New York City, USA. Thereafter, she was a managing partner and financial comptroller of KARMIC/ JCM STUDIOS, LTD., also a New York City, USA-based firm that set up a medium-sized factory of private label dresses. In 1987, she worked as Production Manager of CALVIN KLEIN, INDUSTRIES, INC., a world-renowned New York City, USA-based producer of haute couture men’s wear, fragrances and accessories. Here, Ria was exposed to and trained in the intricacies of international business operations. Until her assumption of her CELCOR and FCVC posts, Ria was a member of first PHILIPPINE HOLDINGS, INC. management staff, drafting and preparing feasibility studies and market analyzes for current and prospective investors.

Power Crisis

The Harvard-trained Ria assumed her CELCOR and FCVC jobs at the height of the energy crisis that occurred in the early 1990s. That energy crisis crippled the economy and left on its track zero economic growth. The crisis was the offshoot of the aging state-owned energy-generating facilities and the scrapping of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. FCVC’s power plant was put up by the Vergara family in response to the appeal of then President Fidel V. Ramos to the private sector to help alleviate the power crisis, during which Cabanatuan had been plunged into 10 to 12 hours of brownouts daily.

In line with her husband, Jay Vergara’s advocacy of making Cabanatuan more investment-friendly, the unassuming chief executive of the city’s electric utilities sees to it that the electric supply remains uninterrupted and steady, thereby sustaining the inflow of investments to the city.

Defining Moment

2013, however, had been another challenging year for CELCOR and FCVC in terms of maintaining the electric supply. A super typhoon named Santi battered Cabanatuan and damaged its transmission lines, resulting in power outages. To cope with the emergency, CELCOR and FCVC made available for free to power-less barangays electric generator sets.

Friendly Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) and neighboring provincial power utilities, on the other hand, dispatched a work crew to assist in fixing the toppled transmission lines. Ergo, power was fully and swiftly restored in record time. Indeed, that was Bayanihan in action at its best!

It is gratifying to note, that despite the past natural and man-made calamities, CELCOR and FCVC and for that matter Cabanatuan City remained standing, back to form and even turned stronger to forge ahead. As the saying goes, “Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People do.”

Milestone Feat

Remarkable too was: during the same year (2013), while the rest of the country was reeling from the damaging impact of successive super typhoons and electric consumers in various regions, including Metro Manila, were complaining about the increase in their power rates, ironically, their fellow electric consumers in Cabanatuan were enjoying a decrease in CELCOR power rates. Ria attributed CELCOR’S reduced power rates to the firm’s strict monitoring of the movement of prices at the electricity spot market and changes in its approach in power trading. These include, she said, signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Therma Luzon Inc. (TLI), direct membership in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) and the setting up of the FCVC power plant which provides CELCOR an alternative electricity source.

With the MOA, CELCOR was able to buy electricity from TLI on a fixed price. Its direct membership in WESM, on the other hand, enabled it to buy or sell electricity in the spot market sans middlemen.

Ria said, FCVC has been a readily available power source whenever rates in WESM surge or in the absence of any other electricity source in the case of massive blackout caused by supply shortage or damage to distribution lines. The firm saved CELCOR consumers from the skyrocketing power rates from September to December when Luzon experienced increase in WESM rates, she said. The increases were due to the massive damage wrought by typhoons on power plants and transmission lines that distribute electricity from the Visayas to Luzon, the annual maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas complex and the unexpected breakdown of several power plants.

“Instead of sourcing electricity from WESM, CELCOR was able to supply the market,” Ria said. “In this situation, CELCOR, instead of paying WESM, is the one that received payment, resulting in a significant drop in power rates in Cabanatuan.”

Running in Full Throttle

Today, with Cabanatuan’s efficient and effective power utilities, new network of roads, bridges, drainage, sewerage, water treatment, transport, telecommunications and potable water facilities and such other investment come-ons as stable peace and order, low business tax rates and- one-stop shop and tax holiday for new business applicants, the social and economic development and growth of the nation’s premier rice bowl have gained further momentum as evidenced by the seemingly non-stop influx of investments to the city.

In fine, Cabanatuan, thru its people-oriented development initiatives, has shown the way to the country’s much touted inclusive economic growth target.