Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairperson and CEO Emilio Aquino received the highest honor in the 2024 The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Awards, in recognition of his contributions to the corporate sector and the development of the capital market.
In a ceremony held at the House of Representatives Dec. 5, Aquino received the TOFIL Award for Government and Public Service, leading six other awardees in their respective fields, including Carl Balita for Education, Seagull Philippines chairman Bing Carrion for Peace Advocacy, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz for Government Service, Commission on Higher Education chairman Prospero de Vera III for Higher Education, neurosurgeon Lynne Lucena for Medicine, and former dean of the University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources Juan Pulhin for Geographical Sciences and Social Forestry.
The Junior Chamber International (JCI) Senate Philippines has been conferring since 1988 the TOFIL Awards to “institutionalize public recognition” of Filipinos aged 41 years old and above for their exemplary contribution in advancing public welfare and national development.
“I am proud to say that SEC Philippines has solidified its golden age and has excellently carried out its rallying mantra: that it’s easy at SEC,” Aquino said in his speech during the awarding ceremony.
“We modernized and digitalized the SEC, and restructured our organization with the creation of several innovative offices to meet rising customer and market demands, so that SEC Philippines is now feted to be among the world’s best employers by London-based Investors in People; among the world’s best in sustainability reporting, recognized the most number of times— thrice— by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, Switzerland, and among the world’s best in digital company registration by Corporate Registers Forum in Malta,” he added.
As chairperson, Aquino crafted the SuperVision 2025 at the start of his term to serve as the Commission’s guide in its goal of transforming the country’s corporate sector and capital market to be among the best in Southeast Asia, the SEC said in a press release Dec. 9.
He also accelerated the SEC’s digital transformation as a tool to achieve his vision, especially during the pandemic to ensure uninterrupted services for its stakeholders. This led to the launch of three waves of digital innovations, starting in 2021, to enable online company registration, reports filing, and payment transactions, among others.
The improved registration process has since allowed the SEC to reach record highs in terms of company registrations, with 49,501 new companies registered in 2023.
The digitalization efforts, along with the establishment of new extension offices in Bacolod, Tacloban, Butuan, and Koronadal, brought the Commission’s services closer to Filipinos locally and abroad.
The SEC has also been at the forefront of making the capital market more accessible to enable growth and expansion. Under his leadership, the SEC established the Philifintech Innovation Office, which seeks to foster innovation and customize the fintech landscape in the Philippines by keeping track of the fast-evolving financial products and services available in the market.
The SEC further launched the Anti-Scam and Illegal Taking of Investments Group, composed of local government units, which seeks to empower barangay officials to protect their constituents from investment scams through reporting mechanisms and awareness programs.
These reforms, innovations, and advocacies earned Aquino and the SEC accolades from both local and international award-giving institutions for championing public welfare and advancing national development.
Last year, Aquino was recognized as the first ever Public Sector Innovator in the 2023 Mansmith Innovation Awards, and was named CEO of the Year for the Philippines during the International Data Corporation Future Enterprise Awards 2022, in recognition of the impact of the Commission’s digital transformation.
For the sixth consecutive year, the SEC also received an unmodified opinion on its financial statements for 2023 from the Commission on Audit, marking the longest streak of unmodified opinions for the SEC over the past decade. ||
