AS protests against corporate greed spread around the world, including the Philippines, executives allied with President Aquino offered corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a formula to defuse social unrest.

“CSR is one appropriate response to this perception [of corporate greed],” Makati Business Club Chairman Ramon R. del Rosario Jr. said on Tuesday.

Del Rosario, who was appointed by the President as the lone representative of the private sector in the Legislative-Executive Advisory Development Council, spoke to reporters as the Occupy Wall Street movement spread outside the United States.

The media reported that protests sprung up in Australia, Germany and London. A similar demonstration was reported in front of the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

But del Rosario played down the show of anger over economic issues, saying protests are “not as widespread anymore.”

“Not everybody blames companies,” he said in a press conference during the opening of the two-day Asian Forum on CSR.

More than 500 people are participating in this year’s forum from a targeted 450, according to Asian Institute of Management (AIM) President Edilberto C. de Jesus.

“We need to understand the cause of these protests. The Asian Forum on CSR is not addressing the protests of today but wants to show that CSR should be made an integral part of the business,” said de Jesus, who was deputy commissioner of the Presidential Office of the Peace Commission under the late President Corazon C. Aquino.

Felipe B. Alfonso, AIM professor emeritus, said he believes that as more companies go into CSR, “there will be less reasons for those to take to the streets.”

Alfonso added a business won’t survive if its product or service is not helping society.

“Let’s face it, business is about the pursuit of profit. The question is if the business is giving back its profits to benefit society as a whole,” de Jesus said.