March 18, 2026 l Business Mirror
“One decade down; forever to go.”
Professional organizations are meant to serve as platforms for professional development and networking. The Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) has gone beyond the core of the usual reason for being of similar organizations. Through the working committees at FINEX Research and Development Foundation, outreach initiatives are undertaken.
One sustained project at the Social Involvement Committee (SIC) is sharing basic knowledge and experience among the not so privileged members of the society and the general public at large in the last ten years.
Departing from the usual dole-out initiatives to certain groups of the underprivileged and those affected by disasters, the SIC chose a different path eleven years ago. It has embarked on sharing basic knowledge and experience on the Finex members’ core competency: financial literacy. The approach has been holistic, featuring the importance of family, education, cooperation, communication, and savings, while keeping focus on the values and priorities that matter most.
The seminar/webinar modules cover basic topics to include basic financial literacy, investments, entrepreneurship, basic recordkeeping, and bookkeeping. Aside from developing the modules, “caselettes” featuring real life stories with financial aspects have been developed and used for the participants to discuss among themselves and present to the entire group of attendees. More than 25 “caselettes” are in the team’s docket. The conduct of the sessions highlights the participants’ understanding of what are shared by the resource speakers and their personal take on the “caselette” story based on their own experience. For better connection and meaningful engagement, the sessions were conducted in Filipino or in the local language/ dialect best understood and appreciated by the attendees.
Aside from delivering inter-active sessions with seminar/webinar attendees, the SIC has published “A Handbook on Personal Finance” in 2021 and the Filipino translated version “Gabay sa Wastong Pamamahala ng Pera” in 2023.
To date, the advocacy has covered 141 seminars/webinars with about 10,200 attendees from all over the country. The sectors covered include the informal settlers relocated in different resettlement areas, the men and women in uniform—the members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine Air Forces of the Philippines (PAF)—those deprived of liberty about to be released in three months, private school faculty and staff, public school teachers, public school students, members of micro-financing foundations, retirees, staff of a major bus company, women farmers, the poorest of the poor, and more.
For the FINEX members behind the advocacy, the sharing of knowledge and experience is the best way to give back to society by conducting the seminars/webinars for free. All resource persons/speakers provide their time, expertise and experience without remuneration and even using their own resources.
After ten years of advocacy, both the attendees to the sessions and those who delivered the sessions have learned from each other. The SIC team appreciates more the state of affairs of the attendees and their dynamics while the attendees got a pause from their busy lives to learn and rethink their chosen pathways. Looking back, the decade of advocacy has represented a sustained long term commitment to share knowledge and experience by those who believe that sharing is caring for it empowers the recipients.
The decade long advocacy would not have been sustained without the support from the governance of the Finex Foundation, the staff and the Finex members of the SIC team and the partner organizations to include the following: Children’s Hour Foundation; Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal Foundation; PNP; AFP; PAF; Special Forces; Scout Rangers; Pag-IBIG Fund; Coalition of Services for the Elderly; Unang Hakbang Foundation; Women Biz Council; QC Bangsamoro Muslim Community; Philippine Consulting Center Inc.; Subic Bay Development and Industrial Corp.; Armscor Global Defense Inc.; Zonta Club Bel Air; Gigawatt Power Group of Companies; Team Energy Group of Companies; Baler Hotel; Resort and Restaurant Owners Association Inc.; Asosasyon ng mga Retiradong Sundalo; Panlalawigan ng Aurora Inc.; Servants of Charity; Episcopal Church Women; Diocese of Paranaque; Ad Standard Council; Department of Education, Culture and Sports; the City Jail of Manila; Tulay sa Pag-unlad Foundation; Ahon sa Hirap Foundation; Agrea; ASA Foundation; Metro Retail; University of San Carlos; Development Center for Finance; Zonta Club of Manila; Saint Theresa’s Alumni Association; and, the University of Asia and the Pacific.
With worthy partner organizations, the journey has been a great ongoing collaboration with organizations that share the mindset to care, share and empower our countrymen.
In celebration of the ten years of advocacy, a recognition ceremony for the partners of the Foundation in Basic Financial Literacy will be held on April 8, 2026 at Makati Sports Club. It will be an auspicious occasion to look back and reminisce a decade long advocacy in personal finance.
May the initiative continue to thrive for many more decades to come.
“We Care. We Share. We Empower.”
***The views expressed herein are her own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of her office as well as FINEX. For comments, email clmanabat@gmail.com. Photo is from Pinterest.