2003, January 31. Manila Electric Railroad & Light Company (Meralco)
Centennial
Litho Offset. Amstar Company, Inc., Perf. 14
Singles, Miniature Sheets of 20
5p Streetcar of Manila - Singles (245,000)
Miniature Sheets of 20 (12,250)
Graphic Designer: Benjie C. Mallari
First Day Covers: Manila
Manila Electric Railroad & Light Company (Meralco)
Centennial
On March 14, 1903, the Manila Electric Railroad
and Light Company (MERALCO) was incorporated in the State 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 street railway service and to furnish electric current for
light, heat, 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
Dulumbayan 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.
A century later, Meralco continues this spirit
with a continous, 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 138.7 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"
(Part of our Lives).