Edmund Alan A. Qua Hiansen l 28 March 2025 at the Shangri-La Makati
Honorable Amenah Pangandaman, Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management, FINEX Past Presidents, FINEX Colleagues, Honored Guests,
Good morning and welcome to our third General Membership Meeting of the year. We are honored to have Secretary Pangandaman here today to discuss a topic that is on all our minds: “Beyond Budget: Priorities, Challenges, and the Road Ahead.” Thank you, Secretary, for accepting our invitation. I assure you; you will not find a more sympathetic audience than FINEX when it comes to the challenges of developing and managing a budget. As financial executives, we know the intricacies and importance of setting budgets and then ensuring the proper disbursement and implementation of approved projects. It is especially fitting to have Secretary Pangandaman as our keynote speaker during Women’s Month, as she is the only female member of the Philippine economic team. I am sure she will share many unique insights regarding the budget.
This builds on our Special GMM earlier this month, which featured former DBM Secretary Butch Abad, and which also focused on the National Budget. Our Advocacy Committee organized this event in partnership with our GMM Committee. It emphasized the budget’s importance as the Government’s primary tool for addressing the needs of its people and highlighted the necessity of financing projects that are vital to the long-term economic interests of the Philippines, rather than projects that offer minimal socio-economic benefits or that are susceptible to corruption.
On March 13, our Professional Development Committee conducted a Tax Seminar entitled “How to Avoid Pitfalls in your ITR”. This was done in partnership with Sprout Solutions as our event sponsor and it was able to reach more than 40 participants.
On March 19, we had a Voter Education Forum organized by our Advocacy Committee, Ethics & Governance Committee and JFINEX which was conducted in partnership with PPCRV. This forum had hundreds of attendees, and the engaging questions led to it extending past the scheduled time.
On March 21, we had a new members Fellowship night in Dr. Wine, Población to welcome our new members. To our members new and not so new, I highly encourage you to join and be active in our committees. They are a fun way to be involved with FINEX while also expanding your professional network.
FINEX Foundation conducted several Basic Financial Literacy Sessions with St. Benedict Parish in Quezon City, Metro Gaisano employees, and Ramon Magsaysay High School teachers’ parents and student scholars. The Social Involvement Committee is fully booked for the year, and they will be going around the country to conduct more financial literacy sessions.
The Environment Committee participated in a Coastal Cleanup drive at the Las Pinas – Paranaque Wetland Park in partnership with the CPAs for Sustainability.
We had the second leg of our Finance Educators Training Program in De La Salle Lipa with a 2-day training for professors on Capital Markets Fundamentals. This was organized by the Business Education Committee in partnership with CMDFI.
Today we will also be having a ceremonial signing with Deloitte Philippines on a Memorandum of Understanding for a Sustainability Study.
Also happening as we speak, there is a Junior Finance Executives Summit being held at the New World Hotel. This is the culminating activity of the Intercollegiate Finance Competition last year and involves 9 of the top schools in the nation.
FINEX Academy meanwhile will launch its Executive Finance Leadership Program on April 30. This is in partnership with P&A Grant Thornton who helped FINEX Academy design the program.
Later tonight there will be a reunion of graduates from the FINEX Academy Finance Leadership Programs at the Makati Sports Club.
We have started to send out letters for sponsorship and are proud to announce our first year-round sponsors: PHINMA Corporation as Platinum Sponsors, Romulo Law as Diamond Sponsors and BPI as Gold Sponsors. Thank you to our sponsors and please let us know if your company is interested to sponsor.
As of yesterday, we have 255 paid regular members as well as 27 life members. If you have not paid or have concerns on your billing, please coordinate with your secretariat.
For the year we have inducted 17 new members with 8 more new members being inducted later. Please message Lyn Vizcaya for the endorsement of new members.
Through all of these activities we continue to build on our theme of Shaping the Future: Leadership and Innovation in Philippine Business. Thank you.