Ayala Land offers integrity in every phase of construction

It is one thing to get ahead of the pack in construction trends. It is yet another, and more formidable, to guarantee integrity in all aspects of construction.

Ayala Land Inc. and its wholly-owned construction subsidiary, Makati Development Corp. (MDC), have earned the trust and confidence of investors because of guaranteed integrity in every phase of the projects, notably including the construction aspect.

"Ayala Land, through its Construction Management Group and MDC, guarantees integrity in the stability of the structures, life safety systems, quality of materials and processes used, all of which must conform with the Building Code," explained Emilio J. Tumbocon, senior vice president of ALI-CMG and concurrent president of MDC.

"We never take short cuts. In fact, we over-conform to the requirements of the Building Code because we are also protecting the integrity of our company," Tumbocon said.

Ayala Land’s CMG is certified for quality by the International Organization of Standards while MDC has three ISO certificates for Integrated Management System by the Certification International of the Philippines. These are the ISO 9001:2000 for Quality; the ISO 14001:1996 for Environment; and the OHSAS 18001: 1999 for Health and Safety and occupational health and safety [ISO 1800].

"ALI and MDC are among the few local companies that obtained these quality and safety certifications from global organizations because of our desire to be globally competitive," Tumbocon said.

"Being ISO certified means we follow a set of global standards in construction management. These are factors clients won’t usually notice on Day One but will certainly realize on Year 10 or Year 15 of their ownership of their Ayala Land Units," he explained.

Ayala Land is committed completion targets. "When we start a job we will finish it on the time committed. It will also stands the test of time. So when we talk about integrity, we refer to all the little elements which are part of the construction process, Tumbocon said.

CMG makes sure that materials used conform with the Building Code’s requirement both for the Philippine and the US standards. Our developments conform with life safety requirements. This means our building will not crumble in an earthquake; when there is a fire, there are systems for fire protection and evacuation," he said.

He adds that for their high rise building or major structures, they do peer review which refers to assessments done by other designers.

Tumbocon said the major challenge for the construction industry is how to be internationally competitive in terms of project delivery, cost and quality.

MDC has 28 ongoing projects, which include projects other than those of Ayala Land, while CMG has 40 spread out in areas such as Cabanatuan, Naga, Batangas, Lipa, Laguna, Cavite and Quirino.

Tumbocon said because of the electronic age, it is easy to do research and development innovations for building materials, design and electrical equipment available from all over the world. The trend these days is towards buildings of glass and aluminum, which Ayala Land spearheaded with its Tower One in 1994 and which was then considered state of the art. He added that buildings now must not just be intelligent but also be energy efficient.

CMG has 32 technical people including architects, engineers, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers. At MDC, there are about 130 technical people and about 3000 construction workers and other personnel.