28/12/2025
𝐃𝐌𝐂𝐈’𝐬 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞: “𝐃𝐨 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬.”
in December 24, 1954, Engr. David M. Consunji established D.M. Consunji, Inc. (DMCI), the Philippines' "Builder of Landmarks" and top contractor of large-scale infrastructure projects.
DMCI's technical expertise, pioneering construction methodologies, and large fleet of heavy equipment have allowed DMCI to complete over 1,000 projects of varying scale and complexity across the country and abroad, including the Istana Nurul Iman in Brunei, the Salim-Halban Highway and several ARAMCO facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Let’s look back at how Engr. Consunji laid the foundations of DMCI with a "remarkable group of friends and schoolmates" who shared his vision, in his own words from his memoir, A Passion to Build.
"Before we finished the construction of the Manila Doctors Hospital, I had already
decided to incorporate my small company. I had not really planned on setting up a corporation before this—I was not the kind of person who made long-term plans-but one thing led to another until we reached a point where putting up a corporation was the most logical thing to do.
I also knew that there was going to be a construction boom soon because I could see that Makati was starting to develop and there was talk of transforming it into a business district. I wanted to be there when it happened so I thought that our company should enlarge its resources and improve its services in preparation for this boom.
I decided to expand once again our motorpool and shops. From an 8,000-square meter yard in Pandacan, we transferred to a three-hectare lot in Cainta. We put a small sawmill that came handy in the fabrication of forms and other woodwork. Later, we would set up on this yard a concrete batching plant and a pre-cast concrete plant.
On December 24, 1954, my company, David M. Consunji Civil Engineer Contractor, a sole proprietorship, became D. M. Consunji, Inc. DMCI had an authorized capitalization of P3 million and the incorporators were myself; my brother, Raul; my cousins, Ruperto "Pert" Consunji and Domingo Consunji; and my UP classmate, Lucas "Lucky" F. Agbayani.
Establishing a new business entity was easy, finding the right people to fill it was the difficult part. Luckily, I had highly qualified construction engineers and managers who worked harmoniously.
I was glad to have convinced my cousin Pert to join us and be our company's treasurer. He was a certified public accountant and was employed with the Central Bank. I never got to ask him what made him join us but I would think he thought my company was doing well for him to even consider resigning from his stable job to join a young company such as DMCI. He was my first choice for the job and he proved to be invaluable to the company.
Pert had always been close to me since childhood and we became even closer when we worked together.
Lucky Agbayani, a classmate from UP with a master's degree in structural engineering from Purdue University, was an assistant city engineer at the Quezon City Engineer's Office before he came on board DMCI. While he was on leave from his government job, I asked him to manage our construction project in Bacnotan, La Union. Later, I was able to convince him to work in DMCI permanently. Because the Quezon City municipal office paid for Lucky's education in Purdue, DMCI had to pay the office back so that he could resign. After his job in La Union, we made him chief of engineering, estimating, project planning, and contract management.
Soon after Lucky joined us, I ran into Jose "Joe" San Juan, an earlier graduate of UP. He was applying for a job in Ayala but I was able to convince him to join us instead and be on the other end of construction-be the contractor instead of the inspector. I knew that he had worked with a contractor named F.J. Nicolas.
Joe San Juan proved to be an extraordinary project manager; he kept his men productive. A very trustworthy and dependable engineer, he would later on be in charge of many of our big projects: the SMC-Soriano Bldg, Ayala projects, and especially the Sultan of Brunei's palace.
I also invited Jesus "Jess" Ferrer, another schoolmate from UP to work with us. He was two years behind me in UP and he had just then finished his masteral course in structural engineering from the University of Michigan. I remember asking him if he would like to go into construction and he said that it was just what he was looking for.
He would be crucial in the construction of the UP chapel, especially in the simplification of delicate forming and pouring activities. He was the principal planner for the project.
Later on, Jess Ferrer would become president of DMCI and president of the PCA (Philippine Constructors Association). He would do a great deal for DMCI, and would make significant contributions in the development of the company.
Another UP classmate who joined DMCI was Cesar Caliwara, although that was much later because he was working in Chicago when we were starting out. He was one of the structural designers of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, a big architectural firm in the US. Like Jess, he also had a master's degree in structural engineering from the University of Michigan. I convinced him to come back to the Philippines to put up a concrete precasting and a prestressing plant. In the 1960s, he would establish Constress Philippines, a sister company of DMCl and would steer it to be a leading prestressing company.
I also remember Remegio Ortiz, another UP graduate, who came in to take the job of Cesar A. Buenaventura when Cesar left for the US. Outstanding in his own way, he was in charge of some of our Ayala projects and he stayed with us until he completed the PNB (Philippine National Bank) in 1965. I recall after the PNB project, he took over the management of Constress Philippines from Cesar Caliwara when the latter left to set up his own consulting company. This remarkable group of friends and schoolmates of mine would work very well together.
With their competence and integrity, they would help me steer DMCI to the top. Back then, we were lean and mean as a company, but we made sure that we always did more than our competitors. Our guiding principle was: do more for less. We all believed that that was the only way to succeed. I would like to think that the growth of DMCI was largely due to the ethical values that we worked and lived by all the years we were together, as well as our company's core principles which we always upheld: fair competition, responsibility toward the client, labor with dignity, and service to humankind."
