OSCAR M. Lopez (OML) was one of the panelists at the recent 10th Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Asian Roundtable held at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati.

The Lopez Group chairman spoke in behalf of the Philippine business sector in a panel focused on the country’s experiences and challenges with corporate governance reforms. His remarks focused on the need for strengthened principles of corporate governance from all sectors in society.

Essential for business
“Corporate governance is not just good, but essential for our business. We understand that to compete globally for markets for our products, and for funding for our businesses, we must meet the ever increasingly rigorous standards of corporate governance… We believe that corporate governance is much more about what we strongly believe in and about what we are committed to observe in all our corporate decisions and actions. It is about being worldclass,” OML stressed.

He also discussed the challenges facing leaders in private businesses who are serious about good corporate governance.

“There is a presumption…that we should be able to compete in an even playing field, where the rules of engagement are clear and impartially apply to everyone. But we all know that is often not the case and that we find that we are often pressured to act in ways we deem unbecoming. Even in our own home market, the playing field is often not even, where political patronage determines the winners and the losers, where graft and corruption constantly lurks below the veneer of acceptable governance. To resist, to stay faithful to our values and vision can be very costly,” he said.

Panelists
Joining OML on the panel were Dr. Jesus Estanislao, chairman of the Institute of Corporate Directors; Amando Tetangco Jr., governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; Fe Barin, chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Francisco Lim, president of the Philippine Stock Exchange; and Jeremias Paul Jr., undersecretary of the Department of Finance.

The forum marked the 10th anniversary of the Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance (ARCG), which serves as a regional venue for exchanging experiences and advancing reforms on corporate governance.