Last January 10, 2025, the top management of Benguet Corporation celebrated 75 years of its listing in the Philippine Stock Exchange by ringing the bell of the exchange at the invitation of the Board of Directors of the PSE—led by its Chairman Mr. Jose T. Pardo and President and CEO, Mr. Ramon S. Monzon.  It was just two years ago that Benguet Corporation celebrated 120 years of corporate life.  From an American incorporated company 1903, it became majority owned by Filipinos after the termination of the 1947 Parity Rights Act which gave Americans equal rights to own property in the Philippines as Filipino citizens. 

            Benguet is first and foremost a mining company.  As an Independent Director and Chairman of the Board of this publicly listed corporation, I am proud of the fact that our company continues to produce such mineral products as copper, nickel and gold.  Today’s so-called Industrial Revolution 4.0 (Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Robotization, and Data Analytics) would cease to exist without the digital devices such as smart phone, tablets, and laptops.  These devices would in turn not be produced without such metals as copper and nickel—not to mention all the solar panels and windmills necessary for keeping the physical environment clean. 

            Benguet is very well positioned for the forthcoming “copper boom.”   As the Financial Times reported on January 15,2025, “Outside China, the mining companies that made their fortunes selling materials into the Chinese real estate boom have rapidly been reorienting themselves towards what they hope to be a new copper boom…As the energy transition requires more electrical cables, more electric vehicles and more solar and wind farms, the resulting surge in demand will be huge.  Copper demand is expected to increase 50 per cent by 2040….”  In fact, some economists go so far as to say that the next war will be a war of metals.  That can only mean higher and higher prices for copper, nickel, gold and other mineral products.  Benguet is indeed facing a very bright future as a mining company.

BC introduced modern mining in the Philippines in 1903 during the American Occupation.  It was responsible for schooling numerous mining professionals and skilled workers over the years.  It used to be the world’s no. 16 gold producer and the biggest supplier of refractory chromite in Asia.  From its Dizon mines in Zambales, it exported copper concentrates.    With around 9,000 employees in its various mining operations, BC was the largest employer in the country and in the Far East in the mid-1990s.  Led by some of the most qualified top executives over the years, it learned early in its corporate existence the lesson for diversification in order to be sustainable. From 1950 to 1970, it diversified into financing, underwriting, and investment banking (United Finance Corporation, House of Investments, Inc., and Investment Managers, Inc.), engineering and construction (EEI), lime quarry and kiln operation (Irisan project) and forestry (Heald Lumber Co.).  BC ventured into warehousing and logistics (Arrow Freight Corporation), and trading of industrial supply (Benguetrade).   In the 1980s, it organized Benguet Management Corporation or BMC as a holding company for its non-mining projects.  It further invested in agribusiness, foundry and real estate development.

            Part of its vision as a conglomerate was to operate overseas.  In the 1960s, it acquired the Grand Bahamas group of companies for port operations and for real estate, entertainment and tourism outside the country.  Benguet Corp International handled the foreign operations, including the mines in the U.S.  BC is the first Philippine company whose shares were traded in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) until it voluntarily delisted in July 2000.

            As a diversified business conglomerate, BC had its own share of financial reverses as a result of a series of man-made and natural calamities as well as market forces that affected metal prices.  BC was forced to shut down its mining operations and to shelve its non-mining projects, forcing it to sell or dacion its assets to service its heavy debt in the early 1990s.   Today, BC is a leaner organization, with six operating companies, i.e., the parent company, engaged in gold and lime production; Benguet Resources and Management Corporation in mining and export of nickel ore; BMC in real estate; Arrow Freight and Construction Corp. in logistics; Keystone Port and Logistics Management Services in port management; and Benguet Laboratories, in health care.

            Soon after celebrating its 120^th year anniversary, BC resolved the last of its 30-year old debt burden.  In the fourth quarter of 2024, it finally was able to declare cash dividends, strongly signifying that it is back on track.  The recovery from its financial crisis has come at a very appropriate time when Benguet can make a significant contribution to helping the present Administration achieve some of its major goals, which include attaining for the Philippine economy the status of becoming a high-middle income economy in the next two to three years.  Future projects of Benguet Corporation include a 650-hectare solar energy farm that will contribute to sustainable development.  Also in the pipeline is a bulk water supply project for the Metro Baguio area.  This will address a serious obstacle to fulfilling the most important goal of helping the Metro Baguio area become a major tourism destination, not only for the entire Philippines but also  for the millions of tourists who are expected to travel to the Philippines in the coming years. Highly complementary to the tourism industry is the real estate sector in the contiguous areas of La Union, Baguio and Itogon.  There are land assets that Benguet plans to develop medium-rise real estate projects in these areas that are increasingly becoming urbanized.  To complement these real estate projects, Benguet plans to venture also into construction, replicating its former experience in putting up EEI in the 1970s.

            What could be its most significant contribution to the programs of the present Administration is its applying for 10,000 hectares of forest land for agribusiness in Eastern Visayas.  The BBM Administration is taking a two-pronged approach to attaining food security and higher growth in the agricultural sector.  To allow the agricultural sector to grow at an average annual rate of 3 to 4 percent (commensurate with what Thailand and Vietnam have already achieved over the last decade or so), the small farming sector (rice, corn, vegetables) must be endowed with the Government with farm-to-market roads, irrigation and post-harvest facilities, agricultural extension services, cold storages, etc.   This focus on the small farmer or fisherfolk is indispensable in reducing Philippine poverty.  To achieve a significant increase in the value added in agriculture, however, what is needed is the very pro-active role of the private sector in investing in large-scale agribusiness sectors along the lines of the pineapple and banana plantations in Mindanao.

            What were done by such large agribusiness   enterprises in the growing of bananas and pineapples must be replicated in the large-scale growing of other crops like coconuts, coffee, cacao, mangoes, avocado, bamboo, durian, and pili nuts, among others.  This is the sector in agriculture that will contribute to significant increases in productivity and, therefore, economic growth.  It is in the small farming and fisheries sectors that we will find the most effective solutions to eradicating mass poverty.  By leasing 10,000 hectares of forest land from the DENR, Benguet can lead the way in investing long-term capital in improving the productivity of growing coconut trees and coming out with higher-value products from the coconut, such as coconut water, coconut milk, syrup and sugar that are highly demanded in the developed countries looking for more healthy food and drinks.  By locating these coconut projects in regions like Eastern Visayas, Quezon Province or Negros Island, companies like Benguet can significantly reduce poverty which is usually high in these coconut regions.  For comments, my email address is bernardo.villegas@uap.asia