PARTNERSHIPS, community involvement, responsibility, program sustainability, credibility, good governance.
These are the key aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as discussed during a two-day convention organized by the League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) and Cebu Landmasters Foundation on February 4 and 5 held at Maayo Hotel in Mandaue City, Cebu.
The LCF decided to hold a CSR Convention for the first time in Cebu using its 30th founding anniversary theme “Adapt. Align. Accelerate.” in what Shem Jose Garcia, chairperson of the LCF board of trustees, said was a bid to gain practical know-how and strategies on disaster risk reduction management in the wake of the typhoons and earthquakes that hit Visayas and Mindanao in 2025.
Top decision makers of corporate foundations, a business company with a CSR unit, a local government unit, and two government offices who spoke on Day 1 articulated the need for CSR advocates to collaborate and to establish partnerships with the community to ensure program sustainability while maintaining transparency and accountability.
On Day 2, speakers and experts who came from private and public sectors emphasized that response to disaster risks can be managed better if relief plans or projects are driven by data, use science and technology, and are anchored on an understanding of partnership roles.
In his keynote addressing good corporate citizenship within today’s realities, Antonio G. Lambino II, president of Ayala Foundation Inc., reminded the convention participants that the “very heart” of CSR is “responsibility for one another.”
“We are each other’s keeper. And it is in this spirit that CSR is not just about doing good. It is about doing what is responsible – technically sound, context-aware, and grounded in a clear understanding of the change we are trying to make. Responsibility means asking harder questions of ourselves before we act, not just after they happen,” he said.
“To adapt means being honest about what is no longer sufficient. The realities we face today: climate change, disaster vulnerability, widening inequality, challenges in public governance, require us to move beyond CSR that is episodic, reactive, or designed primarily for visibility,” he said. It is “about doing things differently and responsibly.
“When response is paired with relevance, and relief is linked to recovery, impact deepens. And as disasters become more frequent and severe, systems-building, and institutional capacity can no longer be treated as secondary concerns.”
To align is “to agree on a shared set of community partners,” Lambino said. “In many cases, impact is stronger when we commit to working with the same partners over time – building trust, capability, and continuity.” It also means to share “evaluation frameworks and a core set of impact metrics,” he said, “because CSR becomes truly responsible when we understand the change we are trying to create and hold ourselves accountable for outcomes.”
To accelerate, he said, is to “prioritize what matters most and act decisively, to invest upstream, before disaster strikes, and to scale what works.”
An understanding of partnership roles also helps. Government usually takes the lead in disaster risk management and the private sector zeroes its response in identified areas.
“Government cannot and should not work alone, especially in complex, multi-phase disasters,” Dr. Bernadette Velasco, director of the Health Emergency Management Bureau (HEMB) of the Department of Health (DOH). The HEMB is the lead DOH office that handles health emergencies and disasters.
She pointed out the “complementary strengths” private organizations and corporate foundations bring: speed and flexibility; innovation and specialized expertise; community reach and trust; and financial and logistical resources.
Government, corporate partners, and the disaster-stricken community share the responsibility and accountability of ensuring relief and health care arrive fast, Velasco said. “Let us empower the communities” to help mitigate the disaster and sustain the relief project, she said.
A good practice of public and private collaboration is the integration of the local government unit and the community system, which, Velasco said, means “reinforcing, not bypassing, local structures.”
Mandaue City Mayor Jonkie Ouano, in his welcome address, said the mounting challenges localities face call for partnerships to address them as no sector can singularly do it.
“We never do things alone … and we are not here to substitute government,” Atty. Jose Maria Ochave, Unilab Foundation Inc. executive director, said during his presentation. He said there must be “ambag” or contribution from partners of Unilab, a pharmaceutical firm. Good governance is also observed in carrying out relief management, he said.
The CSR Convention was a timely gathering in Cebu where many residents are still suffering from the effects of an earthquake and a typhoon. On Feb. 6, some delegates were scheduled to help PSEFI SKILLS rebuild houses of some typhoon Tino victims in the southwestern town of Balamban, but the activity had to be canceled due to the threat of another weather disturbance (Basyang).
Disaster risks have become complex that a template response no longer applies. “New reality happens when a new disaster strikes,” Silvestre Barrameda, executive director of the National Resiliency Council, said.
Barrameda raised the term “risk ownership,” which he said was “the underrated risk.”
He said it is important that the community struck by the disaster adopt the risk by letting them come up with their own response to it before relief comes in.
The need for a resilience investment was also raised at the CSR Convention. A resilience investment is a proactive measure in post-disaster recovery by building, upgrading, or designing assets such as infrastructure, technologies, and strategies to withstand disasters and shocks.
Advancements in science and technology make it easy for disaster risks to be anticipated and guide decision makers on the course of action to take. These were pointed out by Dr. Emma Porio, a professor emeritus of sociology of Ateneo de Manila University, and engineer Dexter Lo, vice president for social development at Xavier University Ateneo de Cagayan.
Disaster risk management should be driven by data, Porio and Lo said. Data can be statistical, historical, geographical, topographic, community demographic, technological, etc. and can be used to validate the ground situation.
Lo presented as an example the use of fragility curve in determining the prospective damage level of a structure for a given external force. It is a tool in seismic risk assessment to predict potential damage estimate losses, and guide mitigation and emergency response.
Data also helps public and private relief collaborators in preparing funds and logistics—relief goods, health care, transport, manpower, sourcing, communications, and duration of relief.
During the convention, the distinction between a corporate foundation and a family foundation and the difference between foundations and a CSR unit were discussed.
Austere Panadero, executive director of Zuellig Family Foundation Inc., said family foundations are driven by philanthropy and legacy and focuses its responsibilities on governance, sustainability, and alignment with facilities. In the case of ZFF, it has forged partnerships with LGUs, Department of Health, civil society, and the private sector.
Corporate foundations, One Meralco Foundation Inc. president Jeffrey Tarayao, said have long-term, multi-year social investments; can embark on innovations and experimentations without commercial risks; have stronger employee engagement and community trust; and has clear alignment with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and sustainability goals.
“A foundation allows depth, accountability, and external trust that CSR units often cannot sustain,” Sebastian Quiniones, executive director of Pilipinas Shell Foundation Inc., said.
Meanwhile, Jay-Anne Encarnado, VP and Head of Corporate Communications and PR of Converge ICT Solutions, highlighted what the company’s CSR unit has done. She said Converge adheres to technological social responsibility (TSR) that calls for embedding ethics, sustainability, and social good into technology development and usage.
One advantage a corporate foundation has is access to foreign grants.
Shem Garcia said Vivant Foundation Inc., of which he is the executive director, received a grant from the European Union for a project that bore the core competence of its mother company. He shared that Vivant had followed the requirements and procedures set by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC) before he presented Vivant’s proposal to EU.
Upping standards, credibility
The PCNC is a private, self-regulatory body that acts as the government’s partner in certifying non-government organizations (NGOs) and foundations for accreditation and registration by the Bureau of Internal Revenue as donee institutions. It evaluates the NGO- and foundation-applicant on standards of good governance, financial management, and accountability.
PCNC executive director Felix Tonog presented the accreditation process. He said that by being PCNC-accredited, a foundation ups its standards and cements its legitimacy.
“Good intentions are not enough. There is a growing demand for competence and accountability. Good governance matters. Poor governance weakens credibility; weak credibility erodes trust,” Tonog said.
The 2026 CSR Convention in Cebu was also the launch pad for the 3rd CSR Medal of Recognition.
Open to non-members of LCF, the award recognizes outstanding CSR projects that demonstrate significant, measurable, and sustainable impact on communities, aiming to inspire further corporate citizenship.
Awards are given across seven thematic areas: Arts and Culture, Education, Disaster Resilience, Environment, Enterprise Development, Financial inclusion and Health.
The deadline for submission of entries is April 13, 2026. (PR)