FIRST Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP) president Hector Y. Dimacali gives credit to the late Renato S. Diaz as his copioneer in developing the industrial park that rose out of clusters of small farming communities in Southern Luzon.

“With a mandate from Mr. Oscar M. Lopez (then chairman of parent firm First Philippine Holdings Corporation), we searched for possible locations for FPIP visiting sites in Laguna and Batangas. What is now FPIP as we see it is obviously a far cry from what it was. That area was all grass that was neck high where we could have been bitten by numerous snakes caught there had we not been careful. The communities where the Park is now were all sleepy towns whose main economic activity was farming and trade occurred mainly in its public market,” recalled Dimacali.

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BATANGAS in the mid-1990s was a vast expanse of land overrun with grass. The neck-high weeds soon gave way to an ordered landscape of wide avenues lined with spanking new buildings, plus utilities and the other infrastructure that make the workaday life smooth and hassle-free for thousands of Filipino workers.

The Lopez Group in 1997 put up First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP), a 315-hectare industrial property that straddles the municipality of Sto. Tomas and the city of Tanauan at the edge of Batangas, as a response to then President Fidel V. Ramos’s call for big business to contribute to nation building and help draw foreign investors to the Philippines.

Developed and managed by FPIP Inc., the park is touted as the best of its kind in the Philippines, with its combination of unique offerings and special advantages.

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