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Sabado, Mayo 21, 2011

INTRAMUROS: A History

Fortifying the noble and ever loyal city of Manila
“Insigne y leal ciudad de Manila.”
Intramuros [(Latin) intra: within; muros:walls]. The popular name given to the walled city of Spanish Manila. The name “Manila” (it is claimed) derives from nilad, a type of mangrove that bore white waxy flowers (Ixora).
The City of Manila is built on a delta formed by the Pasig River, the only outlet of Laguna de Ba-e, a brackish lake surrounded by the provinces of Rizal (formerly Morong) and Laguna. Because it is a delta, the fertile land was drained by a number of estuaries (esteros); many unfortunately have been covered up, causing the seasonal inundation of the city during the season of the habagat or southwest monsoon. A street on the Pasig’s northern bank called Estero Cegado (dried up estuary) reminds us of these lost waterways. But a few esteros still remain open. Some have picturesque names like Tripa de Gallina (chicken gut), which snakes through the districts of Paco and Sta. Ana, the man-made Canal de la Reina in Binondo and Sunog Apog, which separates Isla de Balut from the rest of Tondo.
Manila’s indigenous inhabitants were the Tagalog (Taga-ilog: river people). They had been actively trading with the Chinese long before the Spaniards arrived. Evidence of this is the number of tradeware found in Santa Ana, the site of the the Tagalog settlement called Namayan and along the shores of the lake upstream. By the 16th century, however, Manila boasted of an international community brought together by trade: Chinese, Arabs, Borneans, Japanese, Indians.
In the 16th century, a thriving community of Tagalogs lived around the palisaded residence of its ruler, Rajah Sulayman. The palisade was built on the Pasig River’s southern bank, where the river empties unto a sheltered bay. A Muslim, Sulayman was related to Rajah Matanda (the older Rajah) and Rajah Lakandula, who ruled over the northern bank, called Tondo. The Rajahs were in turn related to the royalty of Brunei, a center of Islam, which was not just a religion but a way of life that shaped the development of political and social life.
Driven by hunger the Spanish colony, first established in Cebu in 1565, pushed steadily north. By 1569, a settlement was established in Pan-ay where news of a capacious bay and prospects of trade and supplies up north reached the colonists. In 1570, Legazpi dispatched his nephew Juan de Salcedo and Martin de Goiti to reconoiter north. They reached Mindoro where the inhabitants capitulated to Spanish guns, then headed for Batangas, and entered the Pansipit River all the way to Bonbon Lake (Taal). From there they moved on to Manila Bay and dropped anchor at a hook-shaped sandbar called Kawit (Cavite). This was the staging point for their attack on Sulayman’s fortification. Although 1570 marked the formal colonization of Manila, the rest of the colonists did not arrive until a year later in May. By then Sulayman’s palisade damaged by the previous years bombardment was up again. A battle ensued, Sulayman was forced to capitulate and abandon his outpost. The following month on 24 June 1571, the Feast of birth of John the Baptist, Manila was constituted as a city of the Spanish realm.
The Tagalogs who had been forced off their land settled either with their relatives in Tondo or eventually moved to an area south of the Spanish perimeter, called Bagumbayan (new town). This is the site presently ocupied by Luneta park bordering the district called Ermita.
Although Manila received its royal charter on 24 June 1571; given the honorific “ever loyal and noble City” in 1574 and much later awarded a coat of arms (1595), consisting of a castle or at chief and a demi-lion and dolphin naiant at base, the city remained for decades without the wall nor the buildings of mortar and adobe with which we associate Intramuros.
From 1571-74, the only defense of the city was a palisade, reinforced with earth around the same site as Sulayman’s fortification. But in September 1574, alarmed by news on an impending attack by the Chinese Limahong, Legazpi’s successor as governor general, Guido de Lavezares, ordered the building of makeshift defenses which consisted of “board, stakes and boxes and barrels filled with sand.” Limahong almost overrun the city, while Martin de Goiti, who was indisposed beause of fever, was killed during the attack at his residence in Bagumbayan. Only the timely return of Juan de Salcedo and his troops, who had been sent north to “pacify” the inhabitants and search for gold, saved the city. The day was the 30th of August, the Feast of the Apostle Andrew. Limahong was forced to retreat, and found his way north to Pangasinan where his troops were finally defeated. The city decided to name St. Andrew patron of the city in gratitude for what was believed to be his heavenly intervention.
Realizing the need to fortify, Lavesares began surrounding the city with a palisade which was completed under the third governor general Francisco de Sande.
In 1581, a Jesuit named Antonio Sedeño arrived in Manila. He had some knowledge of architecture and was responsible for rebuilding the episcopal palace in stone after a fire in 1583 razed the city. Gov. Gen. Santiago de Vera asked the Jesuit to design a fortification for Manila’s southern and most vulnerable flank. Sedeño designed a circular roofed fortification in the style of medieval towers. The tower was dedicated to the Nuestra Señora de Guia, whose image was kept in a hermitage just outside the city walls.
Construction of a stone wall was begun in earnest between 1591-94, under Gov. Gen. Gomez Perez Dasmariñas. He had the NS de Guia tower redesigned and integrated into a more modern wall system. Apparently, Sedeño’s circular tower was still standing in the early 17th century. The oidor Antonio de Morga (Sucesos 1609) describes the de Guia as spacious with places for soldiers quarters; however, later in the same book he contradicts himself by saying that Dasmariñas had the de Guia razed. The fortifications of Intramuros were being constantly repaired and improved under different governors general from Dasmariñas’ time until 1872 when the last recorded work on the fortifications was completed.
From 1618-24, because of the threat posed by the Dutch, Gov. Gen. Alfonso Fajardo de Tenza had a moat dug on along the city’s eastern flank. In 1603 and from 1629-30 the Chinese living near Manila rose up in revolt. The 1630 revolt spread to other neighboring provinces. As a consequence of this uprising, the Chinese were driven out of the city and forced to live in a ghetto, known as Parian, one arquebus shot distant from the walls. An open space was built between the city and the Chinese ghetto. But the inhabitants of Manila needed the goods and services of the Chinese, so they were allowed to bring their goods to a gate, which faced the Parian.
Under Gov. Gen Hurtado de Corcuera (1635-44) the moat was expanded and covered walkways constructed. We have an idea of the city’s moat because they are depicted in a 1671 map designed by Ignacio Muñoz, O.P. The moat runs around the eastern and southern flank of the citadel. A contra foso (outer moat) appears in this map, separated from the principal moat by an island formed between the two. The moats are linked at the Baluarte de San Nicolás by a narrow canal. A bridge across the inner moat links Puerta del Parian with the island, where a small outer fortification and curtain wall (a tenaile) was built to protect the gate. Puerta Real which at this time at the end of Calle Real del Palacio was also protected by an outer fortification, a demi-lune.
War, fire, earthquake and other natural and human-made disasters were crucial in the creation of architecture best adapted to the Philippines. There were a number of strong earthquakes in the 1600s, in fact, the century began with one. Another major earthquake struck in 1645, damaging both the walls and many residences and buildings, which by now were built in stone and mortar. This event marked the beginning of arquitectura mestiza, European building traditions colliding with local traditions and the exigencies of living in the Ring of Fire. Documents indicate that by 1630, Manila was filled with residences patterned after Spanish-Mexican models. These consisted of two story stone and mortar structures many vaulted in stone. A few went even higher. These structures were dangerous when the earth shook. After 1645, a mixed style appeared consisting of a lower story of mortar and stone, and an upper story of wood. Stone vaults were avoided, instead tile roofs resting on stout timbers, and supported by lintel and post construction were preferred. Even public buildings like churches adapted this method. Of the vaulted buildings in Manila only the San Agustin church remains. This was completed in 1604 long before the constructional change.
Like the buildings within the walls, the fortification itself underwent modification and repair. Gov. Sabiniano Manrique de Lara (1653-63) had the walls repaired and improved as a consequence of the damages wrought by the 1645 earthquake.
The 18th century saw dynastic change in Spain, the Hapsburg ended their rule and the Bourbons succeeded. Monarchs of the Englightenment, the Bourbons sought to streamline government and modernize it. Among the monarchs ‘ concerns was the fortification of the Philippines, because of its strategic location in the western Pacific. In 1705, the crown sent Juan Ramirez de Ciscara, a military engineer to check on the fortifications in the Philippines and to plan improvments based on modern concepts. He worked on the defenses of Manila, Cavite, and Zamboanga which he rebuilt in 1719, after it had been demolished in 1663. In 1734, under Gov. Gen Fernando Valdez Tamon (1729-39) Manila’s fortification was improved further. Responding to the directive of the king to supply information as a fire had damaged the Royal archives, Tamon sent a report on the status of colonial fortifications in the Philippines in 1738. Not content with what he considered as a hasty report, the following year he sent a fuller and more complete version. This report, elegantly presented in handsome calligraphy and illustrated with a Philippine map and plans of the fortifications arranged from north to south, is a snap shot of the defenses of the Philippines, including Intramuros (fols. 3-9). Valdez Tamon commissioned a map, designed by Antonio Fernandez Roxas in 1729. The map presumably shows Intramuros before the improvements done under the governor. Apparently, the moat seen in the Muñoz map, had deteriorated as the island near Baluarte de San Nicolás had broken up into smaller sections and the outer moat had merged with the inner moat.
While awaiting Gaspar de Torre’s (1739-45) succesor, Fray Juan Arechederra, Archbishop of Manila, took charge of government. From a military perspective, Arechederra’s rule was significant. Assesing the danger of British attack, he ordered the consolidation of walls of the city, reconstruction of the city gate by the Pasig, restoration of the foundry, and an inventory of the city’s stock of ammunition and weapons -all told, improving the defenses of Manila.
In 1762, during the Seven Years War, the British sailed to Manila and surrounded the city. They breached the southern flank of the walls, east of Baluarte de San Diego, after bombarding it for almost a week. They had set their batteries at the churches just outside the walls. For two years, they occupied Manila until 1764, when control was returned to the Spanish.
The British occupation emphasized the need to improve the defenses of Manila. In 1769 Dionisio O’Kelley, a military engineer, proposed deepening the moat fronting the sea and adding parapets to the walls. By 1772, a moat had been dug separating Fort Santiago from the rest of the city. Puerta Real was moved to its present site in 1780 and between 1781-87 Manila’s system of fortification assumed most of its present shape. For a long time, the military had assessed the six settlements that grew just outside the walls as threats to security. Long delayed in its plans to demolish these settlements because of strong opposition from the Church, the military finally executed the plan after the British occupation. Demolished were the settlements of Bagumbayan, Santiago, San Juan, San Fernando Dilao, San Miguel and the Parian. Dilao was reestablished in the district we know today as Paco and San Miguel was transferred across the Pasig to the site it presently occupies. The Chinese transferred to Binondo where there was a thriving community of Christianized Chinese mestizos. The rest of the villages disappeared completely.
In 1861, Puerta Isabel II the last gate of Intramuros was built. This meant redesigning the Ravelin de Sto. Domingo and the Magallanes gate, which opened to the river and where a monument in honor of Magellan stood.
To the end of the 19th century, Intramuros remained a civic, religious and educational center, however, trade and commerce had moved to Binondo, at the northen side of the Pasig. Here British and American trading houses were established by the second half of the 19th century, after Manila was opened to direct foreign trade in 1848. Binondo developed rapidly as a business and residential district attracting well-to-do mestizo families, who built sumputous houses, filled with things foreign, mostly British, and foreign merchants and trader, who found Binondo more congenial and cosmopolitan than medieval Intramuros. The Pasig became a busy harbor filled with schooners, steamships, cascos and other boats.
To attract business to the southern bank, the almacenes or the royal storehouse was built just outside the walls and a new aduana or customs house was built. The almacenes replaced the 18th century Alcacería de San Fernando, a market and a dwelling for transient Chinese traders, originally housed in an octagonal building, in Binondo.
But in 1863, a severe earthquake damaged Manila, many public buildings were in ruin among them the cathedral, the Ayuntamiento and the Palacio del Gobernador. While both the cathedral and the Ayuntamiento were rebuilt, the palace was not. An earthquake in 1880, sealed the decision not to rebuild the Palacio. The governor general transferrred residence to Malacañan, a country house built by the Rochas in the San Miguel district. And since then Malacañan has remained the residence of the chief executive of the land. Towards the end of the century, Intramuros was losing her glitter. Intramuros remained essentially the home of ecclesiatics and civil servants, and the educational center of Manila.
In 1898, after two years of fighting for independence, the Katipuneros had surrounded the walled city, threatening the Spanish within. The Spaniards, however, preferred to surrender to the American armada under Commodore Dewey who had defeated the Spanish forces at Manila Bay. In December of that year, the Spaniards ceded the Philippines to the United States, meanwhile Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo had proclaimed Philippine independence on 12 June, and the Philippine Republic was established. Two more years of fighting ensued between the Americans and the Filipinos until 1901 when American civil rule was established. The American quickly moved to establish American institutions in the Philippines. They took over public buildings in Intramuros. The Ayuntamiento became the site for the 1907 Philippine Assembly, precursor of the Congress.
To improve infrastructure, the Bureau of Public Buildings was established. As part of infrastructure improvement, in 1904, the Americans razed section of the wall to allow better traffic flow through the walled city. The wall was breached at the southern end of Real del Palacio, an opening was made at the end of Calle Victoria, damaging the Revellin de los Recoletos and a stretch from the Aduana to Fort Santiago was demolished. In 1905, the Chicago-based American architect and city planner, Daniel H. Burnham, arrived in the Philippines to create a master plan for the urban development of the country. In Burnham’s master plan for Manila, he proposed conserving the walled city, filling the mosquito-infested moat with sand and converting it to a grass covered green space. In the process of filling, much of the external fortifications were covered among them the bridge connecting the Parian gate to its ravelin. Later when a parking lot was built in front of the Puerta Real ravelin the curved bridge approaching the ravelin was also covered. The moat became the Municipal Golf course of Manila (Intramuros Golf Club), one of the oldest golf courses in Manila.
In 1932, a fire hit Intramuros damaging greatly the southwestern section of the city. By then civil government had moved out of the city with the construction of the legislature and other government buildings just outside the walled city. While the residences in Intramuros continued to be lived in, the demographic of the city was changing. More and more transients-students at the schools and universities, goverment employees, and American on assignment overseas-occupied the walled city’s grand old houses. Many, abandoned by their original owners, were subdivided into smaller units but sharing a common kitchen and toilet and put to let. Two moviehouses opened in Intramuros, so did a number of bars, bakeries and eateries. Intramuros was losing its customary gentility. Intramuros became a city of boarding houses. But still Intramuros remained as Manila’s religious center as the different churches maintained their round of religious festivals. The Neoclassical San Ignacio church, the Neogothic Santo Domingo and the recently built Capuchin church (1898) were favorite sites for fashionable weddings, including those of Americans.
On 12 November 1936, Commonwealth Act no. 171 was passed to conserve Intramuros as monument to the past, this was in response to moves to demolish the walls completely and open the old city for redevelopment. The law also promulgated that new constructions, repairs and renovations keep to the Spanish colonial style.
The utter destruction of Intramuros occurred in a short time during the month of February 1945. While Japanese bombers had attacked the American bases on 8 December 1941, and subsequently on 26 and 27 December dropped bombs on Intramuros, damage was limited to the northeast sector. Damaged were Santo Domingo and its adjoining convento, Santa Catalina, San Juan de Letran, Santo Tomás University and the Intendencia. Manila had been declared an open city on 26 December and on 2 January 1942, Japanese troops occupied the city. Despite the arrests and occassional harrassments, some semblance of city life returned until 21 December 1944 when the Japanese ordered the government under Pres. José P. Laurel moved to Baguio.
Japanese troops were left to hold Intramuros with orders to die fighting. By 3 February 1945, American troops were closing in; they had rescued prisoners concentrated in the Sampaloc campus of Santo Tomás University, north of the walled city. On 5 February, the Japanese forced residents to abandon their houses and held them in the cathedral, San Agustin, and the ruined Beaterio de Santa Rosa. Adult males were separated on the 7th and brought to Fort Santiago. The next two days, the troops torched the city and planted bobby traps. By the 23rd American troops had entered the fortification and rescued civilians held at San Agustin.
But the troops entered a devastated city where they saw some 10,000 civilians executed by the Japanese. The fortifications and the buildings of the city did not survive the fire ignited by the Japanese and the bombardment by Americans. Only San Agustin church and the adjoining monastery were spared. All else was reduced to ruins. Ruined shells that survived the bombardment were subsequently torn down by military engineers using bulldozers and cables. The ruins were breeding grounds for disease because of the many dead, and clearing the rubble was a way to prevent an epidemic. Lost in the takeover of Manila was Puerta Santa Lucia; Fort Santiago’s elaborate gate was blasted to allow a tank to enter as was a section of the wall at the end of Calle Real.
From the 1950s-60s, Intramuros remained abandoned as the religious orders moved their principal churches or houses elsewhere: the Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Capuchins to Quezon City, the Recollects to San Sebastian in Quiapo, the brothers of San Juan de Dios to Pasay City. Sto. Tomas University moved to the Sampaloc district. The Ateneo de Manila which had moved out of the city because of the 1932 fire, moved even further way from Ermita to Loyola Heights in Quezon City. The Colegio de Sta. Isabel moved to Taft Ave. and the Real Monasterio de Sta. Clara to Quezon City on a bluff overlooking Marikina Valley. Of the damaged churches, only the Manila Cathedral was rebuilt. Although it retained the Romanesque lines of its historic design, the interior and the decorative details were all new, the result of creative interaction between Filipino and Italian artists. The rebuilt cathedral was consecrated in 1958.
As for the rest of Intramuros, high rise buildings, apartments, commercial strips were built in utter disregard of the law requiring that construction should conform to the colonial style. The green area around the walls became a garbage dump and a bus terminal. The stones of the wall were quarried for new constructions, and Intramuros became the haven for the urban poor and parking lot for cargo trucks and container vans because of its close proximity to the port. Streets and plazas were reconfigured into parking lots or fenced in.
The National Historical Institute started working on restoring the walls with the help of civic groups and ad hoc committees, the most active were the Intramuros Restoration Committee of 1966 which repaired the gates and the Armed Forces Ladies’ Committee which restored Fort Santiago’s moat and other structures like the Fortín de San Francisco, and the Bastión de Santa Lucia.
http://intramuros2007.wordpress.com/2007/02/20/intramuros-a-history/

*CASE STUDY* 
Operational Management: John Deer Case Study
The company that has been chosen for this case study is John Deere Equipments. This company was founded by John Deere in 1837 and was incorporated in 1868 as Deere & Company. John Deere started this company as a one-man blacksmith shop and it is now a worldwide corporation that has its offices in more than 160 countries and employs more than 46,000 people. John Deere is one of the oldest industrial companies in the United States and it is guided by the original values of quality, innovation, integrity, and commitment that John Deere instilled at the beginning. The business strategy of John Deere, in their own words is: “We aspire to distinctively serve customers — those linked to the land — through a great business, a business as great as our products. To achieve this aspiration, our strategy is: Exceptional operating performance, Disciplined SVA growth, Aligned high-performance teamwork Execution of this strategy creates the distinctive John Deere Experience that ultimately propels a great business and, for all with a stake in our success, delivers...Performance That Endures” (1).
The company is always striving to give its stakeholders the maximum value for their money by continuous improvement and growth in all sectors of the company. The company is organized into four manufacturing divisions:
  • Agricultural Equipment – products for farms;
  • Commercial and Consumer Equipment – equipment related to lawn and ground care, residential needs, golf and turf, and commercial operations;
  • Construction and Forestry Equipment; and
  • John Deere Power Systems – products involved with developing engines for other John Deere products.

John Deere is a listed company and its stock is traded on the New York, Chicago, and Frankfurt, Germany, stock exchanges. The following is a summary of its operations around the world:
Products and Services:         John Deere, with the help of its many subsidiaries, is involved in the manufacturing, distribution, and financing of a large and complete line of agricultural equipment. The product line also includes a very broad range of forestry and construction equipment, and various other consumer and commercial equipment. Other features of the company include the provision of credit and managed health-care plans for other businesses and also for the general public.
Marketing:     The products of John Deere are marketed throughout the world via a large network that consists of many independent dealers, which are supported by a decentralized marketing organization. These dealers have their offices in many countries such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, and Uruguay.
Manufacturing: The factories for John Deere are located in various countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Mexico, New Zealand, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. John Deere products in the United States and South America are produced by affiliated companies.
Research & Development:    Research and investment has always been one of the key interest points for John Deere as the company is known to have invested in large quantities. The various areas of research and development include activities for support of current product development, the development of new products and also for the search for new product-oriented businesses. Many of the factories run by John Deere have a product engineering department whose responsibilities include the design and development of the products.
Diversity:        Deere & Company considers diversity to be a vital part of the company’s core mission and goals. Deere & Company believes in building a vast and great building, one that would strive to cater to all the various stakeholders, including the consumers, the employees, shareholders, business partners, and communities all over the world. Since Deere & Company is a global company with its offices and production factories situated all over the world, it has a very large responsibility to all its stakeholders all over the world. More than 20,000 of this company’s employees reside outside the United States and 45% of the total sales incurred come from outside of North America. Deere continues to expand its production and products worldwide and is making its presence known in various new markets all over the world. This also means that new and diverse employees, suppliers, and business partners from various ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds have to be continuously incorporated in the business strategy of Deere. Deere has to remain committed to its stakeholders all over the world and in the various dimensions for them to be able to remain the market leaders. For this, they have to continuously incorporate people from diverse backgrounds into their company to keep the global leading team of employees so that they can better deal with the needs and expectations of the company’s customers.
            Deere has followed certain paths and guidelines that have enabled this company to grow beyond a one-man operation into the large corporation that it has today. One of the key aspects that have contributed to this huge growth has been because of the company’s comprehension of the importance of diversity in running a global company. One other thing that has contributed to the vast success of this company is that it was able to recognize the importance of globalization very early and was successfully able to tap into the vast market around the world when the time was ripe. This is why this company enjoys huge opportunities for growth and has come to realize many of the goals set up by its core mission values and vision. Many critics note that Deere has made considerable progress in the area of diversity and it is continuously improving its business initiatives in order to incorporate all aspects of its existence. “Accountability for diversity starts at the very top of the organization; diversity and inclusion are an integral part of the business agenda. Deere believes that diversity is good business and is essential to maintaining the company's market leadership and sustaining its reputation as one of the most ethical and respected corporate citizens” (2). Some of the areas that Deere is especially involved in include:
  • Senior Leadership and Accountability
  • Supplier Diversity
  • Dealership Diversity
  • Employment and Retention
  • Employee Networks
  • Community Involvement (2)

Product Diversification: Even though John Deere is very committed to its core businesses, it sternly believes that growth in the future not only depends upon carrying on with the current businesses, but also by introducing new products and services to the markets. This is why John Deere has ventured into the areas of finance and leasing by opening up John Deere Credit, which is one of the largest equipment finance and leasing companies in the United States. “It provides financing of farm and construction equipment, recreational and homeowner consumer products, commercial equipment, and revolving credit financing for agricultural purchases. John Deere Health provides health-care benefit-management services to more than 4,400 client companies and covers nearly 505,000 members. With these and future business developments, John Deere is positioned to take full advantage of tomorrow's growth opportunities” (2).
Technology:   Deere has also realized that in order to be leaders in this world and in order to remain the leaders, advancement in technology is also very important. This is why Deere & Company has kept technology as the jugular of its business innovation. Deere & Company works with the latest software and other cutting-edge technological equipment to provide its consimers with state-of-the-art products and services. “For example, product development uses the latest virtual prototyping techniques to produce John Deere products. Other major initiatives include precision-farming systems and global vehicle communications systems, designed to help customers become more productive and profitable. These technological initiatives will provide a major competitive advantage and continued industry leadership position to John Deere” (2).
Commitment to Employees: Deere & Company believes in treating its employees with as great a concern as their customers. Deere greatly values its employees and provides them with very high quality employee benefits. Deere has adhered to these excellent conditions since the conception of the company. Health and pension benefits were offered to the employees of Deere company as long as a 100 years ago. Deere continues to provide excellent support to its employees through various programs and benefits that have evolved over the years in accordance with the changing environment. The employees can choose their own preferences and can chose their benefits. Some of the benefits that are offered include:



  • Continuing Education
  • Financial Planning
  • Fitness
  • Flexible Work Arrangements
  • Health Benefits
  • Other Benefits
  • Resources for the Parents
  • Other Services and Discounts
John Deere has a unique personality when it comes to its image as a business in the global market. One of the first things that any stakeholder would notice about this company is that it has been around for more than 165 years. Ever since the conception of this company, certain core values and contents have been included in the corporate image and culture of this company. These include:
Quality:          John Deere, the man behind this company, was a rugged blacksmith who started business as a one-man shop. He is known to have quoted in 1837: “I will never put my name on any product that does not have in it the best that is in me.” This statement has become one of the core values of the company today and this idea of striving for the best and to be the best is still followed by the company managers, 165 years later. All of the employees at John Deere are trained to be extremely quality conscious and to put quality before anything else.
Innovation:    As with the obsession with quality, the company also believes in innovation through thinking out of the box. It is related that “John Deere chanced upon a shiny, discarded sawmill blade and he suddenly imagined a way to solve the problem plaguing Midwestern farmers of wet gumbo soil sticking to their plows. The next day he used the saw blade to fabricate a crude self-scouring “steel plow” that ushered in modern agriculture. You might say John Deere was founded by thinking out of the box. John Deere employees are innovative” (3).
Integrity:        Money and profits are not everything at John Deere. The Deere & Company was around during the American Great Depression of the 1930s and it saw that many of the customers of the company were not in a position to pay back their machinery debts. Deere & Company decided to carry these customers for as long as necessaries and even though it suffered heavy losses, it kept its promises to the customers. Eventually, all the debt was paid back and Deere retained its goodwill amongst its stakeholders; this goodwill still runs deep and strong in the company’s veins. John Deere employees strive for long-term win-win relationships.
Commitment: “The John Deere trademark is one of the world’s most trusted and distinctive brands. Since all brands are simply promises in short-hand, their name recognition speaks directly to a great many promises made and kept. John Deere employees understand shared commitment is powerful. Nothing runs like a Deere” (3).
            Some of the ways in which the Deere & Company was able to achieve its success through operational management includes two of its most famous systems. The environmental management system and the safety and health management system. “The John Deere Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set of formal, documented processes for controlling environmental impacts and driving continuous improvement. It provides the framework for John Deere facilities to meet legal obligations and company standards everywhere we do business. The John Deere EMS closely parallels ISO 14001, and also incorporates elements of the company's business conduct guidelines. The John Deere EMS is composed of four sections -- assessing, planning, implementing, and reviewing -- and fourteen elements” [see table below]


Table Taken from (4)
“The John Deere Safety and Health Management System (SHMS) is a set of formal, documented processes for controlling safety and health impacts and driving continuous improvement. It provides the framework for John Deere facilities to meet legal obligations and company standards everywhere we do business. The John Deere SHMS Standard draws elements from the OHSA 18001 and the ANSI Z-10 Standards, as well as our business conduct guidelines.
The John Deere SHMS is composed of four sections – assessing, planning, implementing, and reviewing – and thirteen elements” [see table below]

Table Taken from (5)
Other operational management parameters that make Deere & Company unique and the purpose of this study include its extensive audits and assurance programs. Both the above mentioned systems run strict audits and assurances based in three elements: an annual compliance assurance letter, a corporate/third party audit program, and a self-audit program. The compliance assurance letter allows the company to keep track of its parts and distribution facilities for financial risks. The managers are required to fill some forms that are related to the safety of the working environment as well as the management of risks involved in the working conditions. A third party audit is held that checks with the safety and health of the employees.
These audits provide assurance that adequate safety and health policies and standards are implemented worldwide. The self-audit program complements the formal third-party audit program. The scope of a unit's self-audit is dependent on the safety and health risk of the facility.

Conclusion
Perhaps one of the most important reasons why John Deere has been chosen for this case study is because this company has strived to keep up with the changing times and has successfully grown itself in the various markets all over the world. It took many companies a long time to realize that the global market was the market of the future but Deere & Company had envisioned this growth a long time ago. And the best thing is that they were successfully able to ‘strike while the iron was hot’ and take home the winning prize of global growth and customer care. The Deere Co. has also been very successful in its endeavors of providing the stakeholders what they need world wide.


Work Cited:

  1. Deere & Company Website, “John Deere Strategy and Promise,” Online, http://www.deere.com/en_US/compinfo/strategy/index.html (Accessed August 12, 2005)
  1. Deere & Company Website, “Company Information: General Information,” Online,  http://www.deere.com/en_US/compinfo/generalinfo/ (Accessed August 12, 2005)
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  1. Deere & Company Website, “Safety and Health Management System,” Online, http://www.deere.com/en_US/compinfo/envtsafety/operations/SHMS.html (Accessed August 12, 2005)

Biyernes, Mayo 20, 2011











Linggo, Mayo 15, 2011

Hacienda Luisita

News Analysis
The Hacienda Luisita Massacre, Landlordism and State Terrorism
The public outrage ignited by the Luisita Massacre should also keep an eye on other potential flashpoints that could lead to similar acts of state terrorism. There are several other plantations, large estates as well as development projects and mining exploration areas in many parts of the country that have been militarized.
By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat
Hacienda Luisita strikers scamper for safety from police and military gunfire (left), as workers carry the bloodied remains of a fellow worker (right)
Video grabs courtesy of SIPAT
The violent dispersal of the strike of Hacienda Luisita farm workers on Nov. 16 that led to the death of 14 farmers including women and children and the wounding of 200 others was a massacre bound to happen.
The labor dispute that pitted, on the one hand, the hacienda’s 5,000 farmers and 700 milling workers who were demanding among others the reinstatement of 300 workers and on the other, the management that has rejected every inch of their demands was in a deadlock. With their families living on starvation wages and themselves threatened with a mass lay-off, there was no way by which the workers could push their cause except by staging a strike.
From the very beginning, it appeared that the only response that the powerful Cojuangcos – including former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino – had in mind was by military means. Most of the accounts that have been reported about the Nov. 16 massacre have overlooked the fact that the 6,000-hectare hacienda, known in the past as Asia’s largest sugar plantation, has been militarized since the beginning. The military detachment that was put up at the hacienda reportedly carried out harassment operations against union leaders particularly in the thick of the election of union officials. Union officials were accused as “NPA rebels” or “sympathizers” – a demonization campaign that, in the military’s counter-insurgency strategy, is usually the prelude to the summary execution of progressive activists.
Just across the commercial complex that adjoins the hacienda along the MacArthur Highway in Tarlac is the Philippine Army’s Camp Aquino. Camp Aquino, while serving as the headquarters of the Army’s Northern Luzon command, virtually guards the vast hacienda and its units are at the beck and call of the Cojuangcos and other powers-that-be in the region during times of labor unrest or during election.
Other flashpoints
Yet the public outrage that the Luisita massacre has generated should also keep an eye on other potential flashpoints that could lead to similar acts of state terrorism. We refer to the fact that there are several other plantations, large estates as well as development projects and mining exploration areas in many parts of the country that are under militarization. These are areas where the lands of farmers were either grabbed from them or where agricultural estates due for land distribution have been subjected to land conversion schemes.
These are also areas where communities of upland farmers and indigenous peoples are displaced to pave the way for so-called energy, irrigation or similar development projects and mining exploration activities. In these areas, landlordism and transnational corporate power cast a net of terror backed by government agencies, local officials and military and police forces and often also by paramilitary and private armies.
Thus, in Negros for instance, farmers and human rights groups have accused another Cojuangco – former Marcos crony Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. – of using his political influence to use the military, police and even a gun-for-hire “rebel” group to protect his landholdings and corporate property. On Mindoro island over the last few years, scores of activists, community organizers including human rights volunteers have been killed reportedly by government troopers and their assets. Today the island has once again been opened for the entry of transnational mining corporations out to exploit Mindoro’s mineral deposits.
In Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte where the Arroyo administration has allowed the Canadian firm Toronto Ventures, Inc. (TVI) and Benguet Corporation to conduct mining exploration and production, military and paramilitary forces have been deployed to block attempts by the Subanons to stop the destruction of their communal and sacred lands.
In these and many other provinces, counter-insurgency has been used as a ploy by civilian and military authorities to suppress the resistance of hapless farmers and indigenous peoples. Too many cases of human rights violations have been committed against unarmed protesters in the name of counter-insurgency.
“Outnumbered”?
In the Tarlac massacre, government has said that the soldiers and police units deployed at the height of the strike were “outnumbered” by the protesters who were able to mass up 4,000-strong. And so sword had to be unleashed: an APC (armored personnel carrier) rammed through the workers’ picketline while machine gun and snipers’ bullets were fired into the crowd from several directions coming – so surviving victims and eyewitnesses said – from atop buildings of the hacienda. Apparently, the strike was violently broken to allow at least 50 truckloads of sugarcane to be milled, also inside the hacienda, and hence allow the Cojuangcos to continue reaping some more money.

Used ammunition slugs and tear gas canisters from the Nov. 16
massacre of Hacienda Luisita strikers
Photo by Dabet Castañeda
The ghosts of the past have returned. The whole of Central Luzon – which includes Tarlac province – has probably the most number of massacres that have taken place in recent memory. The list takes you all the way from the Philippine-American war at the turn of the 20th century where whole communities were raided and pillaged and their inhabitants murdered without mercy by U.S. mercenary troops, to the massacres perpetrated by soldiers and constables under the command of then Defense Secretary Ramon Magsaysay and CIA operative Col. Ed Lansdale as well as during the Marcos dictatorship and until today.
One of the most gruesome cases was the massacre in Lupao, Nueva Ecija in the early part of the Aquino presidency, where 17 farmers including women and children, were killed by Marines on suspicion that they were NPA rebels. Before that in January 1987 – the second year of the Aquino presidency - 13 farmers were shot and killed by Marines and policemen as some 10,000 farmers from Central Luzon and Southern Luzon marched to Mendiola to demand genuine land reform.
Central Luzon used to host the biggest U.S. military bases outside the U.S. mainland – Clark Airbase in Angeles City, Pampanga which is some 20 kms from Tarlac, and Subic Naval Base in Olongapo City, Zambales. The military bases were there not only because of the vast valley’s strategic location but because their presence was supported by the powers-that-be, such as the Cojuangcos and Aquinos.
More important however is that Central Luzon has been historically dominated by traditional oligarchs with big landowners maintaining haciendas not only here but in other regions as well most especially in Pangasinan, Iloilo and Negros. Some of the country’s presidents – including the current one – come from here. Indeed the elite power that originates in Central Luzon casts its tentacles far and wide.
In Congress, landlord-representatives were the first to emasculate the much-touted Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), reducing it, as organized farmers said, into a mere scrap of paper. At the village level, town and agrarian officials colluded with judges preventing large landholdings from being subjected to CARP through trickery and other machinations. The myth about President Aquino’s sympathy for the peasant masses through her “centerpiece” CARP quickly crumbled when she unleashed her total war policy where tens of thousands of peasant families bore the brunt of militarization and atrocities. She and her successors hyped about land reform while the sword of war was pointed against the peasantry.
Landlordism has made Central Luzon as having one of the biggest populations of tenants and farm workers and the displacement in the livelihood of many others is being made possible by the bulk importation of cheap rice, corn, vegetables and even salt, no thanks to President Arroyo’s trade liberalization policy. Probably the only flicker of hope that an ordinary family can grope for today is a contractual work abroad. The region is thus where many overseas Filipino workers now in Iraq and other Middle East countries come from. From them one can sense the strong will to survive despite the hopelessness they leave at home: “Di baleng mamatay sa Iraq hwag lang magutom ang pamilya sa Pilipinas” (It’s better to die in Iraq [by having a job] than see my family starve to death at home).
Widespread poverty, landlessness, union repression and state terrorism help fuel the armed revolutionary movement here. One cannot mourn of the Hacienda Luisita massacre without thinking that this would ignite some kind of a prairie fire that would engulf the entire region once again – as it has been in recent past. Bulatlat Analysis
http://www.bulatlat.com/news/4-42/4-42-massacre.html
Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts
Vol. IV,    No. 42      November 21 - 27, 2004      Quezon City, Philippines

Bayanijuan Bagong Simula MTV

SPOLIARIUM




The Spoliarium (often misspelled Spolarium) is a painting by Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people are an ethnic group primarily located in the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines. and about 11 million living outside the Philippines....
 artist Juan Luna
Juan Luna
Juan Luna y Novicio was an Ilocano Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century...
. The painting was submitted by Luna to the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884, where it garnered a gold medal. In 1886, it was sold to the Diputación Provincial de Barcelona for 20,000 pesetas
Spanish peseta
The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra...
. It currently hangs in the main gallery at the ground floor of the National Museum of the Philippines
National Museum of the Philippines
The Museum of the Filipino People is a department of the National Museum of the Philippines that houses the Anthropology and Archaeology Divisions of the National Museum. It is located in the Agrifina Circle, Rizal Park, Manila adjacent to the main National Museum building...
, and is the first work of art that greets visitors upon entry into the museum.

Aesthetics


The spolarium measures four meters in height and seven meters in width. The canvas depicts a chamber beneath a Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean...
 arena, where bodies of dead gladiators are being dragged into a shadowy area, presumably to be piled for disposal.

Spoliarium was painted on a very large canvas and is more or less life size. It depicts defeated gladiators in the arena being dragged into a pile of other corpses. On the left side, there are spectators viewing the spectacle with a variety of expressions, while on the far right side of the painting is a grieving woman in torn and shabby clothing. Horizontal lines are seen in the walls and the people watching the scene. But diagonal lines that denote movement are very obvious and can be seen in the gladiators’ slain bodies, in the men dragging them and in the floor tiles. There is dominant use of contour lines as shown in the muscles of the arms, legs and backs of the gladiators. In the use of color, there is a governing use of red, mostly seen in the center, that is one of the first things to attract the attention of the viewer. The use of blue on the weeping lady's dress creates contrast against the gladiators’ red dresses. The intensity of the color red is very overwhelming. Almost all of the colors used are warm colors, which is thought to be intentional on the part of the artist. Luna has been known to use colors not simply for reasons of aesthetics but also for their symbolic value.

The Spoliarium shows the Spanish government's mistreatment of the Philippines. The dead bodies of the gladiators represent the Spanish killings of Filipino revolutionaries.

Ryan Cayabyab composed the opera Spoliarium, which chronicles the creation of the eponymous painting and Juan Luna's trial for the murder of his wife. Soprano Fides Cuyugan-Asensio wrote the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata.Libretto , from Italian, is...
. A recorded version was released for commercial distribution in 2006.http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Spoliarium

Linggo, Abril 17, 2011