Congratulations are in order for a company whose quality management, environmental management and occupational health and safety management systems were recently recertified compliant with and are in adherence to international quality standards.
The NLEX Corporation’s ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, and ISO 45001: 2018 certification, all latest versions of ISO certification recently conferred by DQS Holdings GmbH, a leading worldwide certification body, for the effective implementation of its integrated management systems (IMS) after it successfully passed surveillance audits.
The Integrated Management System (IMS) collates the NLEX Corporation’s systems and processes into one framework, enabling the organization to work and implement the different processes with streamlined objectives.
DQS is one of the leading certification bodies for management systems worldwide with over 30 years of experience in management system assessments.
NLEX Corporation officers expressed extreme happiness said the recertification of their management systems, stressing that these reflect the company’s commitment to provide the highest value to its customers, partners, and employees.
As a bit of history, NLEX secured its first ISO certifications in 2008 and were renewed in 2011 and 2014 after it successfully passed surveillance audits.
“We are delighted that our efforts to improve the company’s processes, preserve and sustain the environment, and care for the well-being of our workforce and other stakeholders have again been recognized and benchmarked against international standards,” NLEX Corporation President and General Manager Luigi Bautista said.
NLEX Corporation Chief Operating Officer Raul Ignacio said getting ISO 9001:2015 assures our customers of our commitment to continually adhere to the highest standards in our operations while ISO 14001:2015 confirms our compliance to environmental responsibilities and ISO 45001: 2018 validates our efforts in creating a safe working environment.
The current certificates cover the design, development, construction, operation, and maintenance of toll roads and are valid until November 2021.
“These certificates are testaments to the organization’s collective efficacy as well as signify our pursuit to enhance customer satisfaction and deliver the services our motorists truly deserve,” Ignacio added.
Apart from the DQS certificates, the NLEX Corporation was also awarded with IQNet certificates of the three standards.
IQNet is an international network of partner certification bodies and has the largest network of leading certification bodies, with numerous partners spanning hundreds of offices and subsidiaries worldwide.
Congratulations to NLEX Corporation and their quest for continuous improvement!
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With the summer, officially called the dry season by experts because tropical countries like the Philippines only officially have two seasons, the other being the wet season, and technically don’t have the summer season, along with it comes the perennial problem that plague the biggest and densest metropolis, Metro Manila: the water shortage.
The dense population not only causes traffic and congestion but also a problem of hygiene, particularly during the dry season when the supply of water from Metro Manila’s primary source of fresh water, the La Mesa Dam, starts to diminish.
Various efforts are being studied such as cloud-seeding that might even be pursued if one takes into consideration the dire situation in Metro Manila where people wait in long lines at the nearest source of water, be these deep wells, fire hydrants or fire trucks.
There are also reports now that people are actually pilfering the buckets and other water containers of unwary individuals and hostilities among the people that struggle to get their supply of water. Is that dire enough?
I am no expert. But when one thinks about it, the uncontrolled migration of people from other places to live and work, or find work, in Metro Manila has resulted in the problem of over-population, further resulting in congestion and still much further, the resultant social problems that include housing, the provision of basic commodities, and crime, among others.
A term has been identified for such a condition: urban decay, in short. It is defined as a previously functioning city, or part of a city, that falls into disrepair and decrepitude featuring changing population, restructuring, abandoned buildings, high local unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and a desolate, inhospitable city landscape.
The dry season, and all other seasons around the world, including the typhoon in the case of tropical countries, cyclones and blizzard in other parts, for that matter, along with earthquakes, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions, have always been around as part of the Earth’s activities that helped shape the terrestrial landscape even before people and animals existed.
So the only way to face these occurrences, I do not call these calamities because these are in fact, natural, is to work around them. Make provisions to meet these events when the season comes. These occur chronologically anyway.
As for the water problem, again I am no expert, but Metro Manila has the Manila Bay. It is, so far, a seemingly endless supply of water. Officials could think about constructing a desalination facility to provide, at least, drinking water for the people.
The vaunted largest seawater desalination plant in Israel produces 20 percent of the water consumed in the country’s households. The desalination plant is named Sorek. It was built for around $500 million and was finished in 2013.
Israel’s population is 8.77 million as of 2017. Metro Manila’s population, in comparison, is 12,877,253 as of 2015. There is a difference but if steps are taken to address this perennial problem, the population at least can be serviced.
Just a thought.