Being an actuary is already an honor unto itself. But, to be one, a licensed civil engineer and a certified board placer at that can only be described as awe-inspiring. Mariano M. Mercado, also known fondly as Totoy, is indeed worthy of this awe. He has not only designed benefit plans or mortality tables, but has literally designed a wharf and a pier extension. Those structures, in Davao and Manila, respectively, are just minor footnotes to an extraordinary career and to a life of service to his fellow countrymen.
Totoy graduated as high school valedictorian from the National University in 1948. From the same university, he received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, cum laude in 1952. In the same year, he took the Board for Civil Engineers and placed 4th. His foray into actuarial science began formally in 1954 when he passed a Scholarship Examination for Actuarial Science with a perfect score in calculus. With a scholarship granted by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), he completed a Master of Science in Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1961. He has also received certifications for the Management Development Program from the Asian Institute of Management in 1974 and for the Philippine Executive Academy from the University of the Philippines in 1979.
He joined the workforce through the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1952 to 1957. Then from 1957 to 1958, he was an Associate Civil Engineer for the Bureau of Public Works. He became a Professional Lecturer for the Manuel L. Quezon University’s School of Engineering, School of Graduate Studies and School of Commerce from 1956 to 1974. After finishing higher studies in the United States, he was offered a position in the Social Security by the State of Virginia but declined to repay the GSIS. He worked as an Assistant Actuary for GSIS from 1958 to 1968. By 1964, Totoy became a Fellow for the Actuarial Society of the Philippines.
Totoy has dutifully fulfilled several functions for more than three decades at the Insular Life Assurance Company. He began as Assistant Vice President and Associate Actuary from 1970 to 1976. He would later serve as Vice President and Actuary from 1976 to 1989. He has been serving as a consultant on Pension plans valuation from 1989 up to the present time and was a consultant from 2005 to 2007 for the Insular Investment and Trust Company.
With his stature as one of the country’s distinguished actuaries, Totoy has also performed as an expert witness in the judicial courts and as a consultant to both private and government entities. From 1992 to 2000, he was a Director for the Universal Reinsurance Corporation. He has been consulted by such institutions such as the World Bank and the Pre-Need Industry (2001) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (2001). He is currently a consultant for the United Life Assurance Company since 2007 and for FF Miravite Inc.
His body of written work can only be described as nothing short of prolific. He has published articles on Variable Contracts, PAS19, Defined Benefit Plans and Minimum Continuing Capital and Surplus Requirements. His most notable works centered around the Philippine mortality experience. He has constructed an Annuity Table for GSIS in 1962 with Dr. Manuel O. Hizon. He has written on the Monetary Values Based on the Inter-Company Mortality Table at 3.5% in 1963 and would later write Graduation of Philippine Inter-company Mortality also with Dr. Hizon in 1966. He has done a Comparative Study for the 1965 to 1970 Inter-company Mortality Experiences. He has produced reports and updates on the Intercompany Mortality Study in 1982 and in 1985. He has written extensively on Filipino Build Study in 1989 for the Insurance Institute for Asia and the Pacific, and for the Actuarial Society of the Philippines.
He has also lectured on Life Insurance Accounting at the School of Graduate Studies at the University of the Philippines in 1993. Outside of the academe, Totoy has also been called as lecturer for that subject in several seminars for the Insurance Institute for the Asia and the Pacific.
Those who had the privilege of working with him had spoken about how fastidious he was and still is with work. His certification is merited by the completion of the most stringent requirements. Notwithstanding the mileage he has accrued, Totoy’s sharp memory is still spoken of as something akin to a myth. Paradoxically, some of the people he has worked with describes a kind and accommodating father figure beneath the stern facade. Totoy shares a life with his family built on warm affection. And to the fortunate ones he has worked with, this warmth extends to them as well.
Totoy began his working life with tide and current predictions. These included observations of the San Juanico Strait and the appropriate application of the Fourier Series to those observations. One can surmise that he merely shifted focus away from the sea, but still employing that razor-sharp intellect. The tide and the current turned into mortality and interest, but the people who benefitted, remained the same: his fellow countrymen.
SDModina
