1954
The Palawan Quicksilver Mines was established in 1954. This was a highly successful mining operation. Mercury from the mines was shipped to Japan until 1975 when the company ceased mining operations in Palawan.
1956
1960s
1967
1968
Under his management, Marsman & Company, Inc. was able to free itself from
all legal and financial obligations it had assumed for some of its
associated mining companies. George Drysdale was instrumental in focusing
the company's investments towards development, expansion and
diversification into agribusiness, food processing, tours and travel, real
estate and health care.
1969
At present, MEPI produces the highest per-hectare yield in the
banana industry. Since its creation in 1969, MEPI has become one
of the brightest points in Philippine agriculture, a shining example of Philippine presence in the dynamic and competitive global
agribusiness industry.
1971
In 1992, the property was converted from a coconut plantation to a banana plantation
now known as Nova Vista. In May 1999, a 180 hectare section of the plantation was spun off to create
the MD Isalon Organic Banana Agri Ventures, Inc.
1976
The strength of the Marsman organization was put to test by the death of
Jan Marsman. Mary assumed the management of the business and competently
carried on with the tasks left by her husband. However, the organization
was beset by problems including the repayment of loans availed of for the
rehabilitation of companies during the post-war years. Three mining
companies in Bicol had to be shut down and control of the Itogon-Suyoc
mines was lost. Mary Marsman passed away in 1963, leaving the company
under the management of able caretakers.
The Retail Trade Nationalization law, which was created to break the control foreign businesses enjoyed on Philippine retail trade, inadvertantly affected most of the Marsmans' food and equipment distribution businesses since it would necessitate setting up alliances with middlemen. This led the company to focus its resources on its Pharmaceutical distribution business. This division, begun in one of the company's warehouses in the 1940's, grew considerably, expanding into repackaging and manufacturing in the latter part of the 1970s.
The Mary Blythe Petersen Marsman Foundation, Inc. was established on March
17, 1967, three years after her death, to administer and manage the assets
left in trust under the last will and testament of Mrs. Mary Marsman and to
devote its income to scientific, educational and charitable purposes. The
Marsman Foundation was placed in control of 50% of all the company's assets. Through the years, MFI has
faithfully complied with its mandate, expanding its projects from
scholarships and donations to genuine community development work including
health care, livelihood and cooperative development and values formation..
The year 1968 heralded a new era for the Marsman organization when
management returned to family hands under the leadership of George W.
Drysdale, whose wife, Anne, is the only child of Jan and Mary Marsman. The
two met at Northwestern University in the United States in 1949 and got
married soon after. George Drysdale had worked for the US Steel Corporation
before coming to the Philippines to work in the different divisions of
Marsman and Company from 1954 to 1957.
In 1950, the dreaded mosaic virus disease wiped out the Marsmans' 7,500-hectare abaca plantation in Davao. This event eventually directed the Marsmans toward bananas and in 1969, The Marsman Estate Plantation, Inc. (MEPI) was established, one of the first banana plantations in Mindanao.
The Nova Vista Management and Development Corporation, established in 1971,
traces its roots as far back as the 1940's when it was still an abaca
plantation called the Moro Improvement and Trading Corporation. The area was converted into a coconut plantation after the
widespread mosaic disease devastated the abaca plants. The coconut plantation,
renamed Tagnanan Estate, Inc., was placed under CARP and was awarded
to its 332 beneficiaries.
Camarines Minerals, Inc. (CMI) was organized in 1976 to manage and oversee
the mining properties, operations and interests of the Marsman-Drysdale
Group in the Bicol Region. As the holding and management company of the
Group's mining interests, it controls more than 3,000 hectares of the
Group's gold mining claims in the Philippines.