Innovators lead Subic roll of outstanding workers

SUBIC BAY FREE PORT—Innovators who saved the company time and money, and enhanced production efficiency and output, as well composed most of the outstanding workers, recognized as the best in the Subic Bay Free Port.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Feliciano Salonga, who led Subic officials in recognizing this year’s batch of outstanding workers, said the awardees “contributed their talents and wisdom to make Subic as it is now—progressive and one of the top investment and tourism destinations in Asia.”

This year’s winners included Relly Nicolas, an electronics communications engineer at Wistron Infocomm Phils., who saved his company millions of pesos by introducing innovations to meet quality standards and on-time delivery requirements. These measures also increased productivity and reduced “failure machine” complaints from customers.

Mariel Go, an industrial engineering technician also at Wistron, provided real-time support to the production line, helping improve manpower efficiency, line productivity and yield rate. Her work notably enhanced the efficiency rate of new cell lines to 99.58 percent within six weeks.

At Juken Sangyo-Phils. Corp., meanwhile, chemical engineer Joy Seridon helped reduce product rejection ratio by as much as 60 percent through improved monitoring, inspection and coordination activities. She was also instrumental in establishing the company’s internal calibration team and was one of the key personnel who worked on the company’s ISO certification.

Edmond David, a process shift engineer from the Subic Water & Sewerage Co., meanwhile, saved the free port from a potentially disastrous situation by preventing a water outage in March, which is the onset of the summer season in Subic. David reportedly directed the operation of the Binictican Water Treatment Plant for three days to ensure unhampered water supply in the Subic Bay Free Port.

Over at the SBMA, Juan Afidchao, an electronics technician supervisor at the TransComm Department, was credited for saving the company more than P100,000 from January to August this year. This, he did through the efficient installation, repair, rehabilitation and maintenance of SBMA telephone lines and units.

The other workers cited for excellence are Melvin Bactad, a training specialist at the SBMA human resources department, who facilitated 35 courses in the past year, one of SBMA’s most productive years in terms of internal trainings; Florante Frias, bulk operations superintendent at the Philippine Coastal Storage and Pipeline Corp., who was instrumental in the discovery of pilferage cases in the petroleum tank farm; and Magnolia Lagrama and Sharon Pasion, both production workers at Nicera Phils. Inc., who were cited for helping increase company output at the production line.

Another awardee was Virgilio Manzano, an SBMA fire marshal who was one of the firefighters whose participation in major emergency operations earned for the SBMA Fire Department the “Gawad Kalasag” special citation from the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

Manzano, who has risked his own life to save others, was also cited as an expert in automotive repair and maintenance, who gets old SBMA fire trucks and support vehicles back in shape.

The Subic Bay Workforce Development Foundation Inc., which annually selects the “10 Outstanding Freeport Workers,” solicited the nominees from all the companies operating in Subic, as well as from the different departments of the SBMA, said foundation head Severo Pastor Jr. Written by Henry Empeño / Business Mirror Correspondent