Top CEO reiterates UP’s role
Is there a role for UP—newly minted as the National University—in the affairs of the country’s business community?
Yes, Ramón R. del Rosario Jr., president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Philippine Investment Management (PHINMA), strongly affirmed.
“The University of the Philippines with all its brains and capabilities should be put in the service of the country, specifically to address our basic ills, to make every Filipino’s life better,” Del Rosario said at the UP Centennial Lecture “The National University in the Nation’s Service.” The lecture, which sought an outsider’s perspective on UP, was held on May 21 at the NISMED Auditorium.
UP was declared the National University last April 29 with the passing of Republic Act No. 9500 entitled “An Act to Strengthen the University of the Philippines as the National University.”
Del Rosario took on two hats: one as a member of the business community and the other as a Filipino. He dwelt on “two particularly critical concerns” with which he was personally “most troubled.”
The first was the “dismal state of our public school system.” He cited alarming figures: while there are some 17 million schoolchildren in the public school system, one in 10 Filipinos (6.8 million) has never gone to school; one in 6 Filipinos (9.6 million) is functionally illiterate; and one in 3 children or youth (11 million) is not in school.
“Clearly, if we are to develop, if we are to address poverty, we must educate our people,” he stressed. He espoused the need for an additional year of schooling, citing results of a 2001 study which showed “an additional year of schooling increases individual wages by 6.5 to 9 percent.”
According to him, it was against this backdrop that a number of concerned CEOs in the country banded together and organized Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), whose goal is to “advocate policy and institutional reforms needed to make the Philippine educational system more effective and efficient, universal and inclusive.” De La Salle, Far Eastern University and Miriam College are among PBEd’s partner institutions.
“We would be extremely fortunate and pleased to have UP as one of our partners and members,” Del Rosario added.
His other critical concern was the “seemingly endemic and unstoppable corruption that plagues the country.” He cited results of two international surveys where the Philippines rated poorly in terms of corruption: a rate of 2.5 (with 1 being the worst rating) in Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perception Index (and further deteriorating from 3.6 in 1999); and ranking number 1 in Asia in the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ranking in 2007 and 2008, surpassing Indonesia as the region’s most corrupt country.
Corruption “dissipates our already meager resources reducing expenditure on basic needs such as education, health and education. Moreover, it discourages investments as invested capital is dissipated due to leakages,” he noted. In addition, “prevalent corruption destroys the spirit, deepening frustration and cynicism, as misbehavior and unethical conduct are rewarded,” he added.
It is for these two reasons that the business community is asking the National University to “provide intellectual leadership” and to “be involved in the reform movement itself.”
“The challenge is for UP, a bastion of critical analysis and the search for knowledge and truth, to contribute to the debates and take positions on issues,” he said. He commended “Lacking a Backbone,” a paper by School of Economics professors Raul Fabella and Emmanuel de Dios, for “providing the intellectual basis for the opposition against the national broadband and Cyber education program.”
Second, UP’s contributions must not remain purely intellectual but must stimulate or be backed by action. “Now is not the time to stand by. We must all come down from our Ayala skyscrapers or ivory towers and join the battle. The forces of wrong, cynicism and despair are strong and powerful and we must join forces to fight the good fight,” he urged.
He proposed the crafting of a “master plan and a roadmap to fight corruption in the country” by the combined forces of “the best brains of Philippine universities, led by UP” and the resources of the business sector.
“The master plan will “identify the root causes of corruption and draw up a doable action plan to address the problem, perhaps breaking up the action plan into short, medium and long term solutions,” where the end result would be a Social Compact “where all major sections of society will adopt the plan and commit to do their part,” and with UP well suited to take the lead.
To this end, he assured the full support of the business community. “I can assure you that for our part, we in business, as individuals and through our organizations like the Makati Business Club and the Coalition Against Corruption, would be enthusiastic supporters of, and participants in such a venture.”
In closing, he reminded the university that the future of the country depended not only on the intellectual development of the youth but also on their moral formation. Noting the university’s thousands of students as its most natural resource, he said, “We must make them not only competent in their fields of endeavor, but we must also make them good people and concerned and active citizens. They must learn to fulfill their obligations as citizens—paying taxes, caring for the environment, playing by the rules and exercising our right to vote for our leaders.”
In addition to heading PHINMA, Del Rosario is also the president of Bacnotan Consolidated Industries, Inc. and chairman and CEO of AB Capital and Investment Corporation; vice chairman of Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. and Chairman of Microtel Inns and Suites (Pilipinas) Inc.
He serves on the Board of Directors of the Ayala Land, Inc., Holcim Philippines, Inc. and Roxas Holdings, Inc.