1968
On June 5, 1968, Col. Jose P. Rueda, together with a single business partner and others, incorporated Sentinel Watchman & Protective Agency, Inc. (“Sentinel”) and located the security outfit in Sta Mesa, Manila. This was undertaken principally in preparation for the contractualization of the company security force of San Miguel Corporation composed of some 800 company guards. San Miguel Corporation, then under the leadership of Don Andres Soriano and his son Andres Soriano, Jr., was an institution Col. Rueda had served as its Security Director. In an “old-school” sense of loyalty, the SMC patriarch rewarded his loyal executive, a man he had initially come to know in the Second World War, when as a police Captain, he had participated in escorting Gen. Douglas McArthur to Leyte where he famously uttered his famous “I shall return” line. This is a historic event the SMC patriarch and the Sentinel founder jointly shared and dearly held close to their hearts.
Other business friends of the founder quickly lent their patronage to the new corporation. Notably Coca-Cola, then a San Miguel Corporation distribution partner, Roche Pharmaceuticals, and La Suerte Cigar & Cigarette Factory, then local contract manufacturers of cigarette brands Marlboro and Philip Morris, formed part of Sentinel’s initial client portfolio. Proudly, they remain clients up to today and embody the sort of loyal business relationships that had to be forged to survive the half-century since.
