Binalbagan Isabela Sugar Company

BISCOM Inc. is a sugar manufacturing company engaged in raw sugar manufacturing and sugar refining. The company, then known as Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company was established in 1947, utilizing the machinery of five (5) war damaged centrals, namely: the government controlled Binalbagan Estate, the Montilla group controlled Isabela Sugar Company, and the Spanish group controlled centrals of Palma, San Isidro and Bearin. The move, which was encouraged by the late President Manuel Roxas, gave the government through the Philippine National Bank (PNB) a majority control of company stock. February 1951, the government offered its share for bidding and a planters group known as the Philippine Planters Investment Company (PPIC), headed by the late Eugenio Lopez, Sr. acquired control of the company. 1962 the PPIC group sold out to the Trans-Philippine Investment Corporation (TPIC), a Makati-based management firm, which owned and managed the company. In 1985, Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company was sold to A. Chan group with Mr. Antonio Chan as its Chairman of the Board and President until his death in 1994. Presently, Mr. Jose Mari L. Chan, eldest son of the late Antonio Chan, took over as it new Chairman of the Board and President. On February 26, 1997 the business name of Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company was officially changed to BISCOM Inc. BISCOM started operations by serving an area of approximately 10,000 hectares of sugarcane plantations. By 1958, ten years after it started operations, it was serving an area of about 20,000 hectares. At present, 35,000 hectares comprise the BISCOM mill district, which is within four (4) municipalities and one (1) city namely: Binalbagan where the mill site is situated, Hinigaran in the north, Himamaylan City in the south, Isabela and Moises Padilla in the east. Most of the populace in the BISCOM milling district coming from the various sectors such as: the planters, the employees and laborers of the central, and farm workers and their families as well; are benefited by its milling operation. It is also note-worthy to mention that under R.A. 809 out of 100% production of BISCOM for each crop year, 3% goes to the sugar farm workers or "sacadas" which are being distributed through the Department of Labor and Employment's Regional office (DOLE-RO6) sugar planters in time for the opening of classes in June. The plant site comprises a total land area of approximately 640,000 square meters and employs seven hundred fifty (750) personnel in raw and refinery sugar production, quality control, warehousing, technical services, engineering support services, transportation and administration. The raw sugar plant has a rated capacity of 14,000 tons cane per day. On February of 2011 BISCOM started operation of its sugar refinery plant, which is located within the compound. Commissioning the new sugar refinery was Tate and Lyle Process Technology (TLPT) and has a rated capacity of 750 metric tons per day which is equivalent to 15,000 LKG bags of refined sugar per day. The fully-automated sugar refinery employs about sixty (60) regular employees and staff plus additional contractual employees for bagging and cleaning. It uses Talo-Phosphatation technology for clarification and ion-exchange for de-colorization.