Pampanga Sugar Development Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In January 1918, a group of prominent Kapampangans gathered at the home of Gov. Honorio Ventura in San Fernando to form an organization that would construct a native-financed central. These included Jose de Leon, Augusto Gonzales, Francisco Liongson, Serafin Lazatin, Tomas Consunji, Francisco Hizon, Jose P. Henson and Manuel Urquico. The organization was formally incorporated in April 1918 as the Pampanga Sugar Development Company.

Finished in March 1921, the PASUDECO Sugar Central was the first Filipino-financed sugar central in Pampanga. Built through the initiative of the Pampanga Sugar Development Company, it was constructed by the Honolulu Iron Works. Its existence became a catalyst for the exponential growth of San Fernando, the capital of the rich sugar-producing province of Pampanga. On July 12, 1939, tragedy struck when Jose de Leon, Augusto Gonzalez, and Constabulary Captain Julian Olivas were gunned down at the administrative offices of PASUDECO. At that time, de Leon and Gonzalez were the two richest men in Pampanga and the biggest PASUDECO shareholders. Together, they had made the central perhaps the most successful and progressively operated one in the archipelago. Today, the PASUDECO Sugar Central stands as a testament to the resiliency of the Kapampangans as a people and their continuous drive towards progress and development. Indeed, the City of San Fernando and the entire Province of Pampanga owe a lot to the PASUDECO Sugar Central.