Insurance veteran seeks new ways to promote coverage consciousness

Insurance was farthest from the young Melecio C. Mallillin’s mind when a horse he was bathing in the river kicked him on the right ear five decades ago in rural Pallua town in Tuguegarao, the gateway to the Ilocos region.

“I was thinking of owning a stainless jeep when I graduated from high school,” recalls Mallillin, an Ibanag (meaning river dweller) from Cagayan and president of Mercantile Insurance Co. Inc. In the cavernous office, lined with H. R. Ocampo and Ang Kiukok paintings purchased by Mercantile founder Edmundo F. Unson, Mallillin tells Boardroom Watch: “This is where we ‘print money [where the money is made]’…where we conceive insurance products.”