Of Profits and Prophets

MANILA: Columnist Tony Katigbak of the Philippine Star writes glowingly of Col Andres Roxas Soriano Sr, whom he describes as "one of our country's earliest visionary businessmen who rose from the ashes of World War II to become one of the Philippines' most prominent businessmen, capitalists and entrepreneur philanthropists" (08 July 2015, philstar.com). His column is entitled "Profit with honor" and says that the phrase "is one of the most memorable and admirable mantras" he remembers of that corporate soul. He goes on to say that Soriano's sons Andres Jr and Jose "were able to steer his companies to ever greater heights and profitability" and that they also established the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), "which has become a worldwide business organization."

Katigbak says "Don Andres' legacy was that he not only built businesses to amass his own fortune, but also sought to provide jobs and opportunities for livelihood for those left homeless and hopeless by the ravages of war." Indeed, "his motto for business was 'profit with honor.'"

Don Andres is gone but San Miguel Corp and Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp are still here; following their father's example, have his sons sought to provide jobs and opportunities to the less fortunate, and how many?

The PBSP is there; how much social progress has it sown and cultivated in the last 40 years since its founding? How much difference in Philippine society has PBSP made?

Here is PBSP on record, online: In Health, 6,675 TB cases provided for; in Education, 6,867 school desks provided; in Environment, 1,478 ha of critical watershed reforested; in Livelihood, P210 million disbursed for MSME; in Shelter, 3,855 households benefitted through cash vouchers and unconditional cash grants amounting to P13,000 per household (pbsp.org.ph). PBSP is now more than 40 years old – those data are astounding in that they are miniscule compared to the gargantuan problems the Filipinos have been facing! I cannot call it social progress by any standard. This is indeed profit with honor, but it looks like it's too much profit to business and too little honor to the citizenry.

I also note that P210 Million has been disbursed to micro, small and medium enterprises; if PBSP really wanted to help, why had it not disbursed P210 Billion instead since 1975?

I'm invoking here corporate social responsibility, defined as follows: "Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to companies taking responsibility for their impact on society" (ec.europa.eu). I checked on the website of San Miguel Corporation, and it says "Through its corporate social responsibility arm, San Miguel Foundation Incorporated, San Miguel Corporation proactively reaches out to others to bring forth change that will enable communities to live better lives" (sanmiguel.com.ph). Well said; how about well done?

I'm not happy to learn that San Miguel is promoting small businesses and yet the only livelihood project it can report that it has implemented is Kawang-Gawa, a cooking demo and livelihood training. And if you look at the image above from the website but which I have posterized, what they call "stewardship of the environment" seems to be simply planting tree seedlings? A few treelings don't make a forest.

But I'm happy to learn this:

We are proud to report that for 2012, our spending for social development breached the P1-billion mark, the biggest by far, by any company in Cagayan de Oro history. Of this, P550 million went towards constructing 5,000 new homes in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, and Negros Oriental for the victims of typhoon Sendong, the single-largest corporate social responsibility initiative in the country.

2012 data? Yes; the San Miguel Foundation is 3 years late in data processing! I wonder why. In any case, I have something to say about the largest corporate social responsibility initiative in the country: 

Gawad Kalinga has shown that it is the best model for corporate responsibility when it comes to community development, as it is not simply building homes but building self-reliant villages. Why didn't the San Miguel Foundation just donate that P1 billion to GK and applaud the group of Tony Meloto? Or why didn't the Foundation simply finance local initiatives for housing the devastated in those provinces?

That would have been high profit with high honor!

In fact, I have another suggestion for another P1 Billion from the San Miguel Foundation Incorporated, and/or the PBSP:

Extend a low-interest-rate P5 million loan each to selected 200 model multipurpose cooperatives (MPCs) in the Philippines.

Model MPCs should show the way for other such cooperatives on how to help emancipate the poor from poverty. I'm interested in coops whose members are mostly farmers, as they are the ones who need help most. I should know; I have been a consultant for the Department of Agrarian Reform in the last 2 years in Pangasinan and La Union and we have been dealing mostly with farmer coops; I am also the Vice Chair of the very active Nagkaisa MPC in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan.

For that P1 Billion initiative, as some sort of loan "insurance," require those model MPCs to strengthen their board and make it inclusive of the Church, science, academe, business, civil society, philanthropy, NGOs, women, and peasantry; that should take care of morality, technology, business acumen, social impact, and honesty. To make good business, require those coops to put up their own warehouses and for them to initiate marketing arrangements with direct consumers to maximize the profit of the producers and not allow the merchants to dictate prices and impoverish the farmers further.

Those multipurpose cooperatives can then show their members so much profit with so much honor!

So much for profit; I'm looking for a prophet. A prophet is someone with a vision. The presidential election is coming, and among the presidentiables, I'm looking for a prophet with honor. Management guru Peter Drucker said, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." I want a presidentiable who is an inventor, who has a dream for a Philippines without poor in 2020, and a program to pursue its fulfilment by, say, requiring companies in the Philippines to exercise their corporate social responsibility fully like San Miguel should!