A Postage Stamp History of Independent Telephone Company, Inc.

After the American liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese invaders in 1945, the Armed Forces of the United States left behind huge stockpiles of used and unused warfare items including different means of communications used in the battlefield like battery-operated field telephones, combat telephone wires and switchboards which were stored in army depots.

The late Mr. Felix Reyes, a resident of Canlalay, Biñan, Laguna and his wife the late Rose McNulty became close friends of Silvino (Bino to his friends) and Pilar Alzona. Knowing Mang Bino’s self-learned skill and interest with pliers, screw drivers, nuts and bolts. Mr. Reyes broached to him the idea of taking to Biñan some discarded army telephones which he thought could be of use by their friends and relatives. Mang Bino passed on the idea to his cousin, the late Marcial Velarde who was more at home with technical matters and the late Quirino Ignacio who was also knowledgeable about telephony. Then, they started the project.

Mr. Reyes had a friend, Col. Frank Haydon in the United States Army Contingent which liberated Manila. He used his influence with the American Colonel to request for field telephones, combat wires, switchboards for installations in their homes and in the homes of some friends and relatives. They cleaned out the battery-operated telephones and sorted out the still reusable combat wires and made a study on how to install the telephones in their homes. It was a successful, their “Kami-Kami” telephone project and soon after other friends and other people who saw and heard about the “katuwaan” communications set-up signified their desires and interests in having telephones in their own homes, too. They tried to convince and encourage Mang Marcial and Mang Bino to expand their “baby” communication project so that the whole town of Biñan would benefit from their idea.

Mang Marcial was one person who liked challenges like this. He was that kind of person who, when interested in a project, went out of his way to push it through to success. He really put his mind and heart to it. He would skip sleep and meals when technical problems were encountered. Mang Marcial was the brains and Mang Bino was the brawn, so to speak.

The two cousins, with the help of Mr. Reyes, brought home telephones, wires, and army switchboards. They repaired, improvised and refurbished the surplus items. When everything was ready to be on the launching pad, the two had to plan the next step which was who would run things and keep it going. It was agreed upon that the Alzona Family would make up the staff while Mang Marcial would be the technical consultant, for free. It was a family affair. Mr. Alzona’s wife and three daughters were assigned as telephone operators while Mang Bino and a son were the linemen. The lineman son was also given a night duty shift as operator.

The late Mayor Jesus Garcia, and the Municipal Council were very supportive about the “crude” but good-enough novel telephone system. They requested for the installation of telephones at the Biñan Municipal Building and “barrio” outposts. The Mayor’s Office gave the family encouragement and morale support to continue with the system. Friends and relatives who were being served free suggested that they be charged a monthly fee since it was a demanding and full time work for the whole family. The “thank you” Christmas gifts the family received once a year could not feed the family and so they suggested a monthly fee of Php. 2.00 for every telephone owner.

The telephones in the offices of the municipal building and barangay outposts were serviced free and in return for this favor, the telephone system was not required to pay municipal taxes, licenses and permit to operate. It was pure public service on the part of the Velarde and Alzona families.

At this point, the other towns in Laguna, except San Pablo, were being franchised by Republic Telephone Co. Its top executive, Mr. Jose Santiago, came to Biñan one day to see Mang Bino. At this time, the location of the Biñan Telephone System, was a former garage adjacent to the house of Mang Bino. The whole set-up did not create an impressive impact on Mr. Santiago, although it did not register on his face. However, the family did not care about his impressions because the family felt proud of its telephone system.

The Republic Telephone Co. knew the Biñan Telephone System was not a legitimate company and that if they wished to, they could set up their own telephone company anytime but they were courteous enough to talk to Mang Bino first. Mr. Santiago told Mang Bino that his company was interested in applying for a telephone franchise in Biñan and added that if Mang Bino would agree to turn over the telephone system to his company he would hire her two daughters as telephone operators. Mang Bino and Mang Marcial did not like the idea of giving up the system in favor of the Republic Telephone Co. Mang Marcial then made efforts to talk to some well-to-do and influential people in Biñan and to convince them to form a corporation to run the telephone system.

The Alzona family was being pressured by Meralco and BIR men into paying the proper rental of poles and taxes, respectively. Mayor Jesus Garcia came to the defense of the Velardes and Alzonas and supported the telephone system all the way. He went out of his way to prevent the Meralco and BIR personnel from stopping the operations of this “colorum” telephone system. He went to Meralco and talked to its executives. He informed them that the system was purely a public service and the family operating it barely earned enough from it and could not afford to pay for the pole rentals. He even gave Meralco the assurance that he would financially answered for incidents attributable to telephone wires attachments to their poles. Mayor Garcia also worked for the exclusion of the telephone system from paying taxes for the same reasons previously mentioned with the BIR.

Mang Marcial succeeded in convincing some rich Biñan families to invest in the crude telephone system. Thus, Independent Telephone Company, Incorporated (INTELCO) was born, registered at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and granted a franchise. From then on, everything was done above board as it assumed a legal status. The Republic Telephone Co. lost to the dedicated Biñan investors. The Board of Directors of the newly incorporated telephone company, as a gesture of acknowledgement and appreciation gave Mr. Marcial Velarde Php. 500.00 worth of shares in the company for having pioneered the telecommunication business in Biñan. It also offered shares to Mr. Silvino Alzona, who instead of accepting the shares made a request that he be given Php. 5,000.00. For this amount, he gave up his unofficial right or claim to the telephone system. He said he needed the money for the transfer of his house to its proper place in their compound. He opted to retire voluntarily from his work because he felt that he would no longer be up to the demands and requirements of a job in a modern and sophisticated telephone system.

As for, Mr. Marcial Velarde, he continued his work as a technical consultant and dedicated his last strength to the good of the company until he succumbed to old age. He remained loyal and dedicated to his “baby”.

As time passed, so did the original investors and line up of stockholders. Some sold their shares while new Biñanenses investors joined the company. Despite attempts and pressures of some middlemen to convince INTELCO to sell-out to Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), the late Governor Francisco Almeda, then president of INTELCO, resisted all pressures. Mr Almeda stood his ground and refused to give in to tempting offers and promises of profits on their invested shares. There was a group of oppositors and detractors who joined forces to make the company surrender to their complaints of bad public service and to give in to the offer-to-buy overtures of PLDT. The local system was no match to the more modernized, well-funded PLDT and Republic Telephone Co. but just like “David”, INTELCO stood its ground, proud and tall, stared at the eyes and face “Goliath”, the giants of telecommunications.