Today’s Business Matters column should have been written by Prof. Felipe “Fil” Alfonso. Unfortunately, Fil passed away last April 5, a week before he was to turn 76. His passing marks a loss to the business community, especially because of his passionate commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR), or what many refer to as the business of doing good.
Our column last Jan. 19 welcomed the members, staffers and guests of the Apec Business Advisory Council (Abac) Meeting that was held on Jan. 20 to 23 here in Manila. Abac brings together business leaders from each of the Apec’s 21 economies to identify policy priorities and key concerns of the business sector.
Since joining the Inquirer’s pool of Business Matters contributors in 2011, I have twice written about the Apec Business Advisory Council (Abac) Meetings that I have been attending as lead staffer to our Abac Philippine representatives, Doris Ho, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Tony Tan Caktiong. The Makati Business Club (MBC) was tapped to serve as the Abac Philippines secretariat, and our office has been in a managed chaos of sorts since December last year, as the Philippines is playing host to Abac’s first meeting of 2013 this Jan. 20 to 23. When MBC first agreed to help our Abac representatives, little did we know that such commitment would mean organizing an Abac conference in Makati City.
The staff of the Makati Business Club (MBC) organized last Dec. 19 a Christmas outreach for 30 children of Sitio Gipit in Antipolo, Rizal. The whole MBC team participated in an afternoon of storytelling, games, art, gift-giving and merienda. The little treat was appreciated tremendously by the children and their parents who live in a rural poor community spawned in part by the operations of a huge cement factory in the area. We crossed some rice paddies to get to another side of the community and were informed that these were the work of tenant farmers who use their harvest to pay for the use of the land and for debts incurred and feed their families either with the harvest itself or with the little they still manage to sell.
Since December 2010, the Integrity Initiative has been encouraging enterprises, small and large, to sign a pledge as the first step of a journey toward rebuilding a culture of integrity in the private sector. To date, 1,500 companies have signed the Integrity Pledge. We aim to double this number, or reach at least 5,000 signatories, by the 3rd Integrity Summit in September 2013.
It is not a well-known fact that the Makati Business Club serves as the secretariat of several regional and bilateral business councils established to promote not only business and investment between the Philippines and other countries, but also the exchange of views on policies of mutual concern. I have written many times about the Apec Business Advisory Council where the country is ably represented by Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Doris Ho and Tony Tan Caktiong. The MBC also services the Philippines-US, Philippines-UK, Philippines-France, Philippines-Singapore and Philippines-Malaysia Business Councils. As there are a number of other countries with which we do business, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) acts as secretariat for the other councils. Often, the MBC and PCCI help organize business delegations for official state visits as part of this role of investment promotion.
One mentor in my life who probably most influenced my decisions in taking roads less travelled is Ed Garcia. Ed has always championed peace and human rights not only in the Philippines but across the globe, having worked extensively with Amnesty International and having been a part of International Alert for many years now. Though based in London, Ed manages to return to the Philippines regularly to help push our peace process forward even just one little step at a time. He never tires of the effort, always reminding me that peace is everyone’s business.
In the aftermath of Tropical Storm “Sendong”—with its staggering death toll now nearing 1,500 and the affected families now numbering 113,000—appeals for more support have led to cancellation of parties and to a call to turn cash for fireworks into cash for the victims, many of whom were left with nothing. All of us, let’s [...]
Many have asked why the Aquino administration seems fixated on pinning down the Arroyos on corruption charges. They go as far as to opine that this takes away the government’s focus from the real problems of the country, diverting precious time and resources from more important affairs of the state. Fortunately, many of the captains [...]
While listening to our Philippine representatives to the Apec Business Advisory Council (Abac) – Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Tony Tan Caktiong and Doris Ho – brief President Aquino on the upcoming Apec meeting in Honolulu this November, I could not help but reflect on why we need not “Occupy Ayala.” Here were leaders of [...]
Last April, I wrote about the Apec Business Advisory Council (Abac) that was established in 1995 “as a permanent body to act as an independent voice of business within the Apec process” and as “the sole non-governmental entity that has a role in the Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting through a formal dialogue.”
