AS we move toward the end of the year and cap our second year of existence as Business and Professional Women (BPW) Makati, it may be fitting for us to pause and look back at what we have accomplished and what we can look forward to.
The call for women in business and in professions to “step up” has been heard and responded to: From 21 members when BPW Makati was incorporated in 2013, that number has grown to 51. This number represents a diverse range of specialties and generalities—from business to baking, from law to cosmetic retailing, from information-technology commerce to yoga, from academe to government. All are women who are ready and committed to advance the Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) under the United Nations Global Compact (www.weprinciples.org). For BPW Makati, we have chosen to focus on economic empowerment for women, as we believe that this has the highest impact in furthering gender equality and all the positive effects it engenders.
To this end, we engaged in various activities, such as the e-Woman Bazaar of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC); cohosting networking nights with Coca-Cola and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s (PLDT) SME Nation in separate events, during which multinationals presented their women’s-empowerment programs; aligning with the Cherie Blair Business Mentoring program; and nominating young entrepreneurs. We hosted, with RCBC, a talk on financial mentoring, in which Anton Mauricio of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines shared the principles of financial planning, and Jessie Sincioco of the Chef Jessie Restaurant group shared tips on how to succeed in the competitve food business.
In February BPW Makati cast a vote in the international board of the International Federation of BPW during its congress in Jeju, South Korea. Five members attended: Ambassador Delia Albert, our founding chairman; founding president Jeannie Javelosa and founding mem ber Luvy Villanueva, who both spoke about the multisectoral GREAT Women Platform; Lexi Schulze, another founding member who was a speaker on women in media (and who was recently nominated as a director to the Philippine Commission for Women); and Karmi Palafox, another founding member who represented us in the Young BPW.
In presenting our programs and goals, the congress’s other attendees saw “The Face of the Global Filipina,” in which we want the world to know that she is talented, capable and empowered by a culture that has long recognized the value of women. That the Filipina, having been given opportunities in education, as well as to operate in a relatively open society, is emancipated yet feminine, is competent yet caring. That the Filipina is world-class and in a class of her own: Making the most of a mixed heritage, is Westernized yet still Asian, and able to handle all these influences and opportunities to maximize her potential.
You are that Filipina. At BPW Makati, we believe that a common thread binds the fabric of our being. No matter where we came from, no matter the size of our organization or what stage in life we are in, we all want to learn and share with each other how to do better in the socioeconomic sphere we all operate in.
From a fundraising donation from the SungJoo Foundation and BPW International, we donated P840,000 to Habitat for Humanity. We will build homes that will be given to typhoon victims, specifically the female heads of households.
Going forward to 2015, BPW Makati members are working toward accessing financing programs from the Development Bank of the Philippines and RCBC to give women preferential access to capital; a women’s forum with PLDT SME Nation in March that will focus on women’s businesses moving toward Association of Southeast Asian Nations economic integration; aligning with PLDT/Smart Communications for the creation of the GREAT Women ICT (information and communications technology) Platform, with the goal of providing, in the virtual space, networking opportunities for members in trade, services and other interests; through other members in social media, a mentoring program on “Personal Branding,” while using ICT to boost one’s profile and business goals.
The big idea for 2015 is our involvement in the forthcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit next September, which the Philippines will host once again. It is an opportune return, as Albert stresses that it was during the 1996 Apec summit that women’s discussion was included on the agenda to address women’s rights, welfare, progress and opportunities for them.
Twenty years, hence, the members of BPW Makati will come to this forum of international relations as representatives from the private sector, specifically from the gender-concerns platform, to show that, in the Philippines, we sustain and are committed to advancing those universal rights, that we are an example, for all the world to see, that women in the Philippines are not just beloved icons, paragons of beauty, and examples of domesticity and service, but full-fledged members of an inclusive society, of a nation in progress, because it is open to and harnesses the power and talents of its women.
Join us at BPW Makati and help continue to make this happen.
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Isabel “Beng” Tesoro is the president of the Tesoro’s Group of Companies and the vice president of Business and Professional Women (BPW) Makati.
This article reflects her opinion and is not the official stand of BPW. Women Stepping Up is the rotating column of members of BPW Makati and comes out twice a month.
For more information on BPW Makati, visit www.womensteppingup.org.