Energy Manpower Expert

Marcial finished his B. S. in Chemical Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City in 1973. He took his Chemical Engineering Board Exam in July 1973 and placed 2nd with an average of 87.75%.

Marcial joined the College of Engineering teaching staff in 1973 and enrolled likewise in the M. S. in Chemical Engineering. He successfully defended his thesis entitled “The Assimilative Capacity of Some Rivers in the Philippines, an LP Model” in 1978.

While doing part-time teaching, Marcial took a full-time job in Tide Detergent Brand Management at Procter & Gamble PMC in 1975.

While preparing his masteral thesis, the need to obtain actual river data on DO and BOD required that he join the Pampanga River Delta Project of the DPWH in 1976. He went further into Engineering Consultancy as a Research Associate at the Economic Development Foundation in 1977. One of his major project was the “Water Quality Modeling of the Laguna Lake and The Maximum Assimilative Capacity of Philippine Rivers”, an LP Model for determining maximum BOD load to meet minimum DO levels for NEDA. This practical experience helped Marcial in finishing his masteral thesis in 1978.

After completing his masters, Marcial joined the PNOC and was detailed as Section Chief for Transport, Building & Machineries at the Bureau of Energy Utilization (BEU) of the Ministry of Energy (MOE).

As part of his training, he was sent in 1979 to study Combustion & Energy at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. His masteral thesis entitled “The Performance and Emission Characteristics of a Methanol-Fueled Spark Ignition Engine” was completed in 1980 under the auspices of the British Council.

In 1980, Marcial and other BEU and NPC staff were sponsored by USAID to study Industrial Energy Conservation at the University of Tennessee. They visited a number of TVA coal-fired and hydro power plants that were famous for complying the rigid EPA standards.

The EDSA Revolution in 1983 resulted in the re-assignment of PNOC-detailed staff at the MOE. Marcial opted to be assigned at the Petron Bataan Refinery in Limay, Bataan. He pioneered the computerization of the Refinery of its tank gagging system, maintenance management system and refinery linear programming system. He was trained on the use of the Haverly LP System and applied it in the initial feasibility study of the refinery expansion and debottlenecking project being prepared by Arthur D. Little Consultants of Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

He took early retirement in 1973 and went into private business. His company developed an LP model for the transshipment of finished products from the refinery to the various oil depots nationwide. For small and medium enterprises, a Real-Time General Ledger Accounting System was developed and linked to the Loans Processing System of a number of Lending Investor companies in Manila.

Marcial returned to work as EDP, Budget & Planning Manager for Petronas Energy Philippines Inc. to join his former BEU Director and PNOC Logistics VP Orland L. Galang in 1996. The plan to go nationwide on both white and black oil products did not materialize due to the Asian financial crises in 1997, and Marcial went back to his private business.

In 1999, Marcial served as Executive Director of PCIERD under DOST Secretary Felimon A. Uriarte, Jr. When President Estrada was impeached, both resigned, and Marcial joined the First Generation Holdings Corporation of the Lopez Group as Senior Manager for Technical Services in 2001.

Marcia’s experience provided him with the basic tools and skills in 1) identifying, developing, implementing and supervising projects that mitigate climate change, and 2) providing expert advice on energy utilization efficiency and renewable energy developments. He also conducted energy conservation audits on major industries to improve energy utilization efficiency and reduce emissions.

His responsibilities at the First Gen allowed him to develop pre-feasibility studies for renewable (wind, solar, small and mini-hydro) and do project finance modeling of power assets for acquisition (2 coal plants, 2 geothermal plants and 1 large hydro).

His financial modeling studies on a mini-hydro power plant in Mindanao included clean development mechanism (CDM) applications. Specifically, the financial model included the initial costs for estimating the greenhouse gas emission reduction, registering the project and the benefits streams (CO2 revenues less monitoring and verification costs). This allowed top management to estimate the returns on the project with and without CDM and carbon emission benefits.

During technical due diligence audits, he was responsible for developing the efficiency or heat rate curves at various power output levels, estimating capital costs for improving plant reliability, availability and efficiency, and environmental remediation requirements.

He also recommended the maintenance cycles (major and minor overhauls) to determine net generation potential and revenues during the remaining life of the power asset for sale. Marcial provided coordination in preparing the model inputs in order to arrive at a bid price for acquiring the asset.

Marcial has been exposed to various trainings on the Kyoto Protocol, Clean Development Mechanism, Cleaner Production (for coal), Financial Modeling and Energy Efficiency/Conservation Opportunities.

Marcial’s other interest includes preparing simple financial / economic models for a business concept like apartment rental (monthly or annual model), franchising, renewable energy applications, lending investor business, and personal financial planning.

His wife, Veronilyn P. Ocampo, is a registered financial consultant and together with Marcial, founded the Life’s Quest Management & Investment Consultancy. Their team after an initial interview and fact finding will prepare a personal financial plan that covers the following planning activities: cash flow management, net worth management, risk management and insurance planning, education planning, income tax planning, estate tax and conservation, investment planning and retirement planning.

Their tools include document and spreadsheet templates that culminates in a financial projection of income, expenses, cash flows, assets, liabilities, net worth and estate tax liabilities from current age up to age 80. As a minimum, two scenarios are examined, namely: current cash flow scenario and revised cash flow scenario. A revised cash flow aims to provide a larger positive cash flow to provide investments to fund retirement income needs. A positive cash flow arises from increasing income, reducing expenses, re-structuring debt from short-term high-interest to long-term low-interest debt, pre-payment of debt using low-interest investments, etc.

If the projected net worth after retirement age (usually 60) and up to 80 years old shows a stable net worth (steady or increasing over time), then the retirement of the individual is deemed sustainable. If the net worth decreases over time, especially after retirement, then the individual does not have a sustainable retirement future.

This concept of personal financial planning may also be extended to companies that desire to have long-term existence. To monitor the financial plan, a real-time general ledger accounting system was also developed to provide month-to-date and year-to-date income statement (P&L), balance sheet, trial balance, general and subsidiary ledgers, cash flow statement, uses and sources of funds, and comparative reports (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow).