years in service

Our Humble beginnings

Amado 

&

They are both Davañeos who married in 1959 at San Pedro Church, Davao City, and raised five (5) children together. Patricia was a supportive wife to his husband until her death on February 18, 1996. On the other hand, Amado is a great husband and a provider for his family. He was born on August 21, 1928, in the Abra, Ilocos Norte municipality. He graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP).

Amado is known as an engineer, agripreneur, and a professor. He started his career as the head of Mindanao in the Radio Communications Office. Then there, he pioneered the two (2) way radio equipment system in Davao City, starting from a ship-to-shore telegraph service serving our overseas workers up to a 2-way radio communication system setup and maintenance for big companies such as AMS Farming, Davao Fruits, Pork’s Park, Company Maritime, and Aboitiz Shipping. His involvement in setting up communication systems in agriculture also led him to start his own banana plantation and export to Japan, taking advantage of his ship-to-shore communications.

As a part of his giving back to the youth of Davao City, he served as a professor at the University of Mindanao, where he taught together with Mrs. Soledad Duterte. Mr. Ola and his wife Patricia were also active Rotary Club members. Mr. Ola died a natural death on April 9, 2014.

Started APO  Communications Service, a Marine Radio Telecommunications company based in L & S Building, Roxas Boulevard, City of Manila. My parents’ firm was created out of necessity at a crucial time in the infancy of the ship-to-shore radiotelegraph.

A means to get in touch for both Philippine departing or Philippine bound cargo ships carrying various items and needs of that era. These were the early stages of VHF (very high frequency) and SSB (single sideband) setup which requires  innovative connections of radio to co-axials to mechanically adjustable antennas.

The Filipino-employed shipping industries had an obligation to their employees to keep them connected with loved ones at home during their tenures, which required them to be seaborne for months at a time, a mentally and psychologically challenging situation given the loneliness and uneasiness of not seeing your parents, wife, and children while sailing on high seas as far as the other side of the globe. Thus, the Associated Radio Electronics and Communications (ARECOM) was born.

1990

FM radio and wireless pay TV.

Fast forward to 1990, and with 4 branches of ship to shore radio operations, our company then decided to embark on FM radio and wireless pay TV. Needing to form another company, our parents then created the Amapola Broadcasting System. This company then operated the 5th FM station in the city of Davao with call sign DXCT 99.5FM.

Then in 1992, Home Channel Network  operated a wireless pay-TV under the same Broadcast Franchise. The Radio telegraph, the FM station and the wireless pay TV operated under Amado L. Ola Public Radio Telephone; Radio Telegraph Coastal Stations; Broadcasting Radio and Television Congressional franchise which was enacted on August 4 year of 1969, as Republic Act 6001.

This was later separated into two as mandated by Congress during the renewal applications on the respective years of 1995 and 2000, under Republic Act 8214 - Amado L. Ola  Broadcast Radio and TV Franchise and Republic Act 8994 - Apo Associated Radio Electronics and Communications Company, Inc., a Telco Franchise.