Washington Sycip Lecture

As part of the celebration of UST AMV-COA for its founding anniversary, it has been a tradition to
invite guests to do insightful talks that can give boost, understanding, knowledge, and perception to things
often not tackled within the four corners of our rooms. This year, the Washington Sycip lecture was
conducted online due to the restrictions set in place by the national government because of COVID-19.
Nonetheless, I can still say that the talk is still good even if there are some minor technical difficulties. The
lecture included a handful of successful professionals, having Atty. Dakila Elteen M. Napao as the main
lecturer, and Prof. Yew Kee Ho, Mr. Allan W. Ocho, Prof. Zubir Azhar, and Mr. Ace Ver C. Vargas as the
panel of reactors.
The main lecturer, Atty. Napao, the assistant secretary of the Department of Finance, gave a talk
about the policy measures during and post COVID-19 era which encircled around on three main points,
that is, immediate COVID-19 policy, recovery strategy of the government, and the vital role of accountants
on the path to economic recovery. Since the impact of the epidemic is too big, policies and certain laws
were created to combat such. According to Atty. Napao, the four-pillar strategy was created to aid the
country in going back to its state before the epidemic, this strategy mainly focuses on giving support to
vulnerable groups, front liners, and on recovery programs. The said strategy was under the Bayanihan as
One Act, and is done alongside small business strategy wage, which literally means what it says. Aside
from the Bayanihan act, the government also implemented the financial institutions’ strategic transfer or
FIST, mostly for giving out tax incentives to businesses in hopes that it will encourage both the private ang
public sector to recover their businesses. Aside from the FIST act that gives tax incentives to businesses,
the CREATE act or corporate recovery and tax incentive for enterprises act was also made for tax purposes,
specifically, on the reduction of corporate taxes, NOLCO deduction for five years, lessened MCIT, and other
more tax related aids. The said act was done to attract foreign investments, as the goal of this law is to
make Philippines look like a country that is great to invest in. With all of that, we can say that there are
various plans made by the government to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, to help the
government, getting investors, and generally the public at large. But, as Atty. Napao said, all of this will not
be possible without the help of the citizens of the country, and we current and future accountants, should
help guide businesses throughout this process of recovery with integrity.
Right after the talk of the main lecturer, the panel of reactors then followed. Prof. Yew Kee Ho as
the first one. He talked about the integration of technology to accounting and how it is being utilized both in
practice and in top universities in the western part of the world. But according to him, that us Filipinos have
a very specific and important asset, and that is the people or as he termed it as “human capital”. Because
humans form creativity, and that is the uniqueness about humanity, because with our creativity we can help
each other and the economy as well. It may be true that we are in a way reliant to technology since it now
helps us in our day to day, more specifically in surviving in this modern age, but according to Prof. Ho, “we
must never be slaves to technology because the greatest contribution an accountant could give should
always be our creativity”. The next reactor was Mr. Allan Ocho and there are a lot of things that he pointed
out, but it can all be summarized on how accountants can help revive the economy. Just like how
accountants can help distribute funds to beneficiaries, contribute to the management of liquidity in a
company, provide consultancy services, build foundational knowledge to students, and most specially in
providing reliable financial statements and preventing fraud. Mr. Allan Ocho ended his talk with eight tips
on how we in this profession can provide value, and that is to be, adaptable, brave and bold, customer-
centric, deliberate and disciplined, be focused our strengths, open to growth mindset, enhance human skills,
and innovative. The next lecturer, Prof. Azhar emphasized that the role of both the academe and
organizations in the step into entering the new accounting world that uses data processing systems that
aids in problem solving is essential ang most especially in helping employees and students add value to
the future of the profession. But the main thing that remained in my mind is when he said that we should
nurture our personal agency for this is something that everyone should have no matter where we are or
who we are. The last reactor was Mr. Vargas, he pointed out that we AMVians is that we should value our
learnings in school that we can relate into the test of knowledge, character, and most importantly the test
of faith. All of the speakers really did give us a sense of understanding, knowledge, and perception to things
that are not directly taught in school and am grateful for that. I just hope that there will be more talks like
this in the future at AMV not just to inspire me, but to the entire AMV community as well.