Moderated by ERDFI member Riza Mantaring, the webinar was initiated in consonance with the Covenant for Shared Prosperity launched by the Management Association of the Philippines in November 2021 to spur businesses to rethink their business models in terms of stakeholder stewardship above that of shareholder primacy.
Keynote speaker Federico Lopez, Chairman and CEO of the First Philippine Holdings Corporation, recounted how they steered their companies towards the new vision of committing to “forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future” through deliberate and judicious investments in renewable energy. Two of the three speakers were also ERDFI members, former DPWH Sec. Babes Singson and Human Resource Consultant and former Meralco executive Mon Segismundo. Sec. Babes directed especially the youth to mind the bottom 40 percent of society and called on companies to operationalize at least (3) to (5) UN Sustainable Development Goals when defining their critical environmental, social and corporate governance factors. Mon Segismundo emphasized the fair treatment of a company’s non-controlling stakeholders such as employees via business processes that safeguard health and enable productivity.
The ultimate aim of the webinar was to galvanize the academe-business sector towards embedding practices of the covenants into the Philippine business ecosystem. In so doing, it emboldens the sector to seek innovative ways that necessarily serve both the business and social goals. The event was organized by De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University, with the support of MAP. (Note: the recorded event may be viewed on: https://fb.watch/8PkluD7L-g/).
