Talking integrity and living with corruption

At the 8 th General Membership Meeting (2025) of the Financial Executives of the Philippines (FINEX), the discussion topic over lunch was “Integrity: Inspiring Progress and Growth.”

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Francis Ed. Lim, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and former FINEX President (2021), opened the talks with a dire warning, “Our integrity as a nation is being tested... we must be catalysts for change.”

“Integrity is the invisible currency of our markets. It underwrites every transaction, every investment, and every decision. When we uphold it, resources flow to their best uses and investors come in,” Mr. Lim said. He added that financial executives can uphold governance standards in every transaction, ensure integrity of companies’ financial statements, and champion investor protection.

He challenged FINEX directly, saying that “as finance leaders of boardrooms, banks, investment houses, and more, (they) can help grow the capital market in the Philippines — which should also be anchored on ethics.”

Integrity Initiative Chairman Alexander Cabrera, who is the Chairman Emeritus of PWC-Isla Lipana and Co., added that finance officers and the public in general must continue to check on government projects. He said one cannot just be silent — even those in the business community. “Calling out government,” he said, “is everyone’s role.”

“The government may suffer from deliberate deafness, call them out anyway and once in a while, let’s sue them because there’s only one way to make the shameless ones react — by a lawsuit,’ Mr. Cabrera urged.

Then spoke the fiery Heidi Mendoza, former Commission on Audit (CoA) Commissioner who was appointed undersecretary general for the internal oversight services of the United Nations (UN) in 2015. Now retired, she has focused on her advocacies for integrity.

Ms. Mendoza recounted her public service career of more than two decades, where she was involved in controversies for pointing out anomalies in government — receiving death threats and being tagged in corruption allegations as she testified in court hearings that jailed some corrupt officials.