Electrifying Enigma

Edgardo Bautista nurtured Mirant Philippines, a private electric corporation, into profitability. Now, he is bringing it to its second and third bottom lines – the corporate and social responsibility (CSR), and the environmental stewardship, respectively. By Cristine Antonette B. Catu


Edgardo “Ed” Advincula Bautista [BS Mechanical Engineering, 1995] spent his preschool and elementary years attending Colegio Sagrado de Jesus in Iloilo City, his hometown. After graduating from elementary in 1948, he entered Colegio de San Agustin for his secondary education. He then graduated from high school in 1951. Bautista enrolled the following school year in the University of the Philippines in Visayas. However, he only remained for one year in the said university because in 1952, he decided to transfer to De La Salle University, still called back then as De La Salle College.

From 1952 to 1955, Bautista pursued his studies there, where his hard work paid off fruitfully -- he graduated cum laude in Mechanical Engineering. Not only did he graduate at the top of his class, but his capabilities also earned him the General Excellence Award and the Most Outstanding Graduate Award upon graduation. He even became an active member of the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers.

So adept was Bautista at his craft that he was rightfully chosen among all Philippine engineering graduates that time to attend the General Electric’s two-year specialized management and technical program in the United States of America. He also became an alumnus of Harvard’s Advanced Management Program.


Electric Dreams

Bautista jumpstarted his career with successful employments in blue chip companies such as Philippine Refining, Jardine Davis, Westinghouse Electric International, First Philippine Holdings, GE Philippines, and Mobil Oil. Hence, he gained all the necessary experiences he would need to be truly competitive in acquiring considerable achievements in power generation.

Looking back in the year 1987, Executive Order 215 paved the way for the termination of the National Power Corporation’s (NAPOCOR) monopoly in power generation and authorized the private sectors to generate and to provide electricity to the people. This was after years of static generation capacity resulting from a limited public infrastructure budget. Coupled with substantial growth and pent-up demand, this resulted in severe power shortages and daily brownouts, which commonly lasted for ten to twelve hours. In 1994, the Build-Operate Trans law further strengthened the entry of the private sectors in the electricity generation business. (Philippine Business, 2003).

Bautista then said, “The realization of the Power Reform Act objectives is seen by Mirant as an opportunity to participate in bringing about the objectives of the Power Reform Act – to ensure that reliable, quality electricity will be made available at a reasonable price. This has indeed given Mirant an opportunity to contribute to the welfare of the people as far as power generation is concerned.”

Thus begins the story of Mirant in the Philippines.

It all started more than sixteen years ago when Bautista became the president of Mirant Philippines, the country’s largest and most cost-efficient private electricity producer. For Bautista, this was not only an opportunity to help the country, but also a potential for a good, long-term business investment. With only six personnel that time, a small capital to start with, and loads of pioneering spirit, he laid the foundations of the power station in Navotas. Amidst the presence of several larger and more efficient plants around the Philippines, Mirant gradually became the country’s fastest top income earner by the turn of the century. A recipient of the 2004 Don Emilio Abello Energy Efficiency Award, Mirant has been considered by Platts Power Magazine as one of the top power plants in the world.

As such, being the leading power development not only in the country but also worldwide posed a lot of challenges. Bautista’s most repellent task was primarily to sustain the corporation’s efficient business leadership. He is proud to have formulated Mirant’s corporate sustainability roadmap. Plus, he was able to unfold the company’s core values. Given the chance by which businesses are now being evaluated by the people, Bautista decided to address four facets of company development: (1) developing business process for an effective and responsive business structure; (2) enhancing social conscience; (3) protecting and enhancing nature’s balance; and (4) and developing a committed and empowered organization.

Bautista remains strong in his conviction that the most important resource in a particular business is the people. Collaborating with an educational institution [Asian Institute of Management for Staff Training and Development], provided him and his subordinates a healthy working environment and a competitive compensation and benefits program that is considered as one of the best in the industry. Because of his efforts in organizational development, Bautista was supercilious to have been awarded as one of the top employers in the Philippines and to have received the Best Employers Award of Asia.


Three Bottom Lines

Why does Mirant spend so much money for its corporate and social responsibility [CSR]?

President and CEO Edgardo A. Bautista explains it in terms of what he calls triple bottom line – finance, social responsibility, and protection of the environment. The company judges its success based on Bautista’s novel triple-bottom-line philosophy. Normally, financial bottom lines are sufficient to define a company’s performance. In the case of Mirant Philippines, however, success is not singularly defined by mere profits.

Developed by Bautista himself, the concept emphasizes giving equal importance to attaining financial goals, leadership in corporate social responsibility [CSR}, and environmental stewardship.

Never forgetting to give back to the community and the environment, Bautista expanded his company’s initiative to include major corporate social responsibility projects such as Project Beacon, one of the biggest programs ever undertaken that redefined the concept of rural electrification.

Another was Project Amore in partnership with two NGOs, which sought to promote peace and progress in Mindanao by electrifying the remotest baranggays and bridging societal disparities.

Mirant also established the Carbon Sink Initiative, a reforestation project meant to promote an anti-global warming campaign. The corporation’s efforts being recognized by the World Bank and various award-giving bodies, Mirant became a leading force behind the CSR movement in the Philippines.

“It is true that blood, sweat, and tears were shed. We have to enter into all kinds of arrangements,” recalls Bautista. “We contract local manpower, we provide funding, and we handle the logistics. In remote areas like Tawi-Tawi, for instance, carabaos had to be harnessed to pull the cables.”

How he convinced Mirant’s American owners is a story by itself, Bautista relates. “CSR is part of the whole business,” he explains.

Mirant is one of the largest foreign investors in the country. It was the first foreign electric corporation to respond to the Philippine’s request for private sector assistance to meet growing electricity demands in the late 1980s. (BizNews Asia, 2005).

According to Antonio Lopez’s article, “Mirant has not one but three bottom lines.” He stated this when Mirant began to earn money; Bautista then introduced the second bottom line concept -- the social concept. The corporation consequently put up its CSR arm, the Mirant Philippines Foundation. After that came the third bottom line – sustaining the environment.

Basically, he explains, “Mirant is not a power plant. It is a factory that produces a product, which is energy. We can only survive if a considerable number of people continue patronizing what we can produce. We have to be the preferred supplier.”

“What differentiates us from the rest,” he points out, “is that we have two objectives. One is to meet the basic need – the immediate need of our customer. The other is to meet a need which we consider more important than the former – the development need.”


Corporate Excellence and Leadership

As Animo reminisces that memorable, very rainy evening, we can not help but think of all the people present there at the Distinguished Lasallian Awards Night. The scrumptious Spanish food and the exceptional music and entertainment rendered by the DLSU Chorale both served to enliven the event, but the occasion would not really have been complete without the gracious presence of Edgardo Bautista and his co-awardees.

Giving due recognition to what he has received, Bautista considers himself worthy of the award not only by what he had personally done, but also by what Mirant has accomplished through the years, the company that he was privileged to lead.

On top of that, Bautista is conceded for the true meaning of corporate excellence and leadership. It goes beyond the traditional financial measures and gives emphasis on its social, environmental, and organizational responsibility. Hence, it is only when these four important segments are successfully realized can he truly say that corporate excellence and leadership has been attained.

Confident that he has become true to the ideals of “Religio, Mores, et Cultura;” Bautista’s years in La Salle has truly given him the values that became his foundation for the development of the principles the DLSAA has recognized.