Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), the country’s leading infrastructure investments company, supports the GoDigital Pilipinas (GDP) movement by aligning its business strategies to help boost the country’s progressing digital pivot.
Led by its Chairman, President, and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan, the conglomerate is fortifying the GDP movement, recently launched by the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC), through implementing technological advancements in the operations of all its subsidiaries. With investments in power, water, toll roads, light rail, healthcare, and agriculture, MPIC seeks to digitalize the daily lives of all Filipinos, widen digital accessibility, and help progress the country towards the future.
“Our role as the private sector is to take the lead in driving the digitalization plans of the country together with the government,” says Pangilinan. “Pouring investments on infrastructure and manpower, whilst espousing digital advancement, will continuously enable us to provide the convenience and accessibility Filipinos deserve.”
Supporting the Country’s Digital Pivot
MPIC’s subsidiaries have already embraced the digitalization of their existing operations and innovated initiatives that encapsulate the group’s overall goal to become a leader in sustaining the country’s expanding digital landscape.
Beyond moving its customers from cash to digital through the implementation of 100% electronic toll collection via RFID, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), the largest expressway builder and operator in the Philippines, is transcending its core business by foraying into the digital space through MPT DriveHub, a travel companion app, offering a variety of mobility solutions that create better user travel experience. The app features three key functions: RFID transactions, trip planning, and roadside assistance.
Meralco embarked on a digital transformation journey with its Customer Centricity Transformation Program and Digital Projects (CCTP+D), a holistic and end-to-end approach that aims to improve the company’s customer touchpoints and operations. In addition, the distribution utility also launched the Meralco Data Platform (MDP), a platform that enables the creation of management and operation dashboards and insights crucial for business decision-making.
Maynilad launched its Maynilad Customer Care QR code that will serve as another convenient means for its customers to initiate contactless transactions with the company. Customers will have access to an electronic form that goes directly to the concerned business area office for prompt processing, whether the transaction is for a service application or for handling an inquiry, report, request, or concern.
LRT-1 private operator and maintenance provider, Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) continues to pioneer digitalization for rail transport and find ways to enhance the commuting experience in Metro Manila. As a business imperative, LRMC has made contactless transactions part of its new normal, deploying Beep and Merchant Loading kiosks in all LRT-1 stations. It also utilizes the Automated Train Operations Metrics System (ATOMS) to provide operational data for day-to-day tactics and GOAL Systems to optimize the company’s human resources. Recently the company teamed up with the Airspeed Group of Companies to bring PopBox, a smart locker system that allows people to use the system as a collection point for receiving packages. Once implemented, it would be the first-ever smart locker system in a public transport station. LRMC is also targeting to implement a QR-based ticketing system this year.
Metro Pacific Health, the country’s first and largest private hospital group, is looking into digitally transforming the healthcare landscape by introducing new virtual care platforms and upgrading hospital information systems to create an integrated digital access point. This will be enabled with capabilities to digitally search for and schedule appointments, virtually triage symptoms, navigate to the right site of care, and access electronic medical records across the network.
mWell, the Philippines’ first fully integrated and fully digital health and wellness platform, is the only healthcare app among the convener organizations and supporting companies in the GDP. mWell provides a seamless end-to-end journey for patients– from booking a video consult or seeing a doctor 24/7 (with only 3 minutes of waiting time), paying for the consultation and even having their medicines delivered to their doorsteps. Free e-prescription, e-medical certificate and lab referral are loaded into the app after consultation. To empower users to keep track of their own personal health record, mWell was the first to provide a digital medical ID. Found on their mWell app, this allows patients to easily access their records stored in mWell’s secure platform.
In line with the app’s efforts to digitalize and improve both its customers’ experience and its doctors’ experience, mWell also utilizes mWell MD, an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Clinical Practice Management System designed for doctors and their staff to manage patients and their practice; the Patient Engagement Portal, an online platform that allows patients to book consultations and other services, and is equipped with a Personal Health Records (PHR) system; and the Hospital Information System, that allows various hospital tasks such as order charging, hospital bed management, and inventory management. Digitalization through the platform also allows healthcare access by overseas Filipinos in all countries, as well as indigenous peoples in remote communities.
Gabay Guro, an advocacy organization under the MVP group that helps elevate and uplift teachers’ livelihoods in the Philippines through training programs and monetary assistance, is also committed to nationwide digital upskilling. Named as a convenor of GDP, Gabay Guro is the first to make the Gabay Guro super app, the pioneer mobile/digital platform launched to empower teachers as they lead the way for digital transformation in education. Within its first 2 days of launch, the Super App had over 100,000 downloads, catapulting it as one of the Top 5 education apps during its introduction phase. Since then, it has stayed popular among users with a steady 4.9 app satisfaction rating.
The Gabay Guro Super app includes curated learning materials from partners such as Microsoft, LinkedIn, and FrontLearners, allows video classes via Zoom/MST/Google, and allows teachers to do digital lesson plans. It also features educator updates, training resources, community access, and livelihood assistance.
Digitizing Corporate Social Responsibility
Parallel to the strategies implemented in business operations, MVP is encouraging holistic digitization even in its corporate social responsibility and advocacies.
One Meralco Foundation’s School Electrification Project, the foundation’s pillar program of providing electricity to last-mile schools, enables students and teachers alike to digitalize their lessons. Students are equipped with the means to experience digital-based learning through the laptops they provide. The work of teachers in the island schools are likewise automated.
Makati Medical Center Foundation currently has three ongoing digital transformation programs in the form of medical information management systems with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). In partnership with PLDT/PLDT Alpha/PLDT Enterprise, these programs benefit hundreds of thousands of soldiers and their dependents.
“The sustainability embedded in our company’s DNA involves futureproofing all the good work that we do, and embracing digital approaches is a massive part of achieving that,” says MPIC Chief Finance, Risk, and Sustainability Officer Chaye Cabal-Revilla. “This is all in service of the Filipino people and the generations that will follow.”
MPIC heeding the government’s call for digitalization bolsters its resolve to be the largest catalyst for a Sustainable Philippines. It is also aligned with the efforts of the conglomerate to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), primarily SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure – which aims to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.