The NCC Beginnings

In the Philippines, the advent of computers primed up government operations with the installation of IBM 650 computer at all Bureau of Lands in 1959 and FACOM 212 at the Bureau of Customs on November 26, 1963. Several other government agencies followed suit. Mainly, IBM and FACOM mainframe computers littered the floors of most of the national agencies.

Over at the Presidential Economic Staff (PES), its then deputy director Alejandro Melchor, who was also Undersecretary of the Department of National Defense (DND), commandeered the acquisition of computers for PES through the Reparation funds via the Philippine Reparations Commission (PRC). In the public biddings, Fujitsu won and voila, the computer model FACOM 230/20 was shipped to the Philippines in 1968. However, since there was no specific computerization plan yet for PES, Melchor recommended a joint undertaking between PES and DND which was also putting up its own computer center. Thus, PES offered the FACOM computer and the DND provided the land and the building. The National Science Development Board (NSDB) contributed the funds for the construction of the National Computer Institute building at the Camp Aguinaldo grounds. Meanwhile, the Japanese experts who set up the computer screened over a thousand applicants from PES and the military for a computer training course. One- hundred-twenty (120) qualified for the one-year computer course, which included BASIC programming, COBOL, FORTRAN, and other systems. At the end of the training, only twelve (12) successfully finished the course. The class topnotcher was sent to Japan to train in the operating system of the FACOM computer.

And so the stage was set for the formal establishment of the PES-DND Computer Center (PDCC) with the inauguration of the FACOM 230/20 computer on February 1, 1969. Its first managing director, Col. Juan Sanchez provided the leadership impetus to his lean yet strong staff composed of the magic "12" who were just trained by the Japanese experts. Col. Fermin Javier became chief of the programming team. They were both programmers and analyst. After the inauguration, the center's pillar men rolled up their sleeves and began servicing government agencies. As the staff grew shortly to around twenty (20), the Center's clients also twenty-five (25) during the period 1969-1971.