This year is an answered prayer for all of us - for PICPA Abu Dhabi to have our face-to-face event again as we celebrate our anniversary and induction. And it became extra special since this year marks our 20th year of service to the Filipino Finance professionals in Abu Dhabi and those that we have reached throughout the years.

For two decades, PICPA Abu Dhabi adhered to its mission -  To serve the best interest of the members and the stakeholders while promoting, upholding, and maintaining high standards in the accountancy profession and protecting public interest. Also, we continue to follow our vision to be a responsive and globally relevant professional organization committed to service excellence.

Tonight is a proof of how far we have come and how grateful we are to look back and to carry on with our mission and vision, our plans, goals and aspirations– all for the benefit of our members and the profession.

Let me take you back to our PICPA logo – As you can see, the colors of the logo are green and blue – green to signify the growth (growth as individual, as a group, as professionals and personal) which is the ultimate goal of the organization, and blue to symbolize the vastness and universality of the accounting profession. The dark blue and green arrows at the center going outward and duplicated in lighter shades signify the accountants’ objectivity and expansiveness as they discharge their functions as guardians of business and economy.

So I hope every time you see our PICPA logo, it will remind you of what we believe in, what we strive for, our purpose and our responsibilities.

Also, let us remember our core values as PICPAns:  

P – Professional Excellence, I - Integrity , C - Commitment , P- Partnership and Teamwork, A – Advocacy for Quality,  N- New technologies and Innovativeness, S- Social Responsibility.

With our theme for the fiscal year 2022-2023: Play it Forward! Securing a Sustainable Future, we will keep on working to strengthen our members as we face the 3 major realities of the profession. 

1.     the increasing use of sophisticated and smart technologies to enhance traditional ways of working;

2.     the continued globalization that could potentially create more opportunities and challenges at the same time

3.     and the increased regulation which are likely to have the greatest impact for the years to come.

We have proven for 20 years that we can keep up, that we are ready but this year, we are also gearing up and will continue to transform as we embrace all the possibilities and realize our potentials.

We will play it forward by paying it forward. As an officer for 5 years, I have seen how paying it forward made a difference not just in the lives of our members but first to the people who are doing it and how these actions are replicated and produced outstanding results. And for this year, we will combine them, we will play and pay it forward!

As your president and together with our volunteer officers, we will make sure to carry on the legacy as we upskill our members, upgrade their skills and competencies and promote lifelong learning. As we aim  to have a work-life balance, we will make sure that our activities cover not just those applicable to our career and professional development but also for our health and well-being. We have prepared a set of events for this fiscal year which we will be presenting later and I’m excited to announce the PICPA Tutorial Group Comeback – Batch 14 this year. We are keeping our best practices and will find ways to increase our value so that each of us will have more confidence and pride as members of our organization.

Leaders are not born, they are made. And one of my mentors told me that the ultimate goal as a leader is to create more leaders. Tonight, I’m standing as a living proof of that. And I wanted to take this time to say “THANK YOU” to all our leaders – past and present – who made a significant difference and shared their time, resources and skills to be of service to PICPA Abu Dhabi. To our advisers, mentors, PTG facilitators, reviewers, lecturers, partners – our volunteer officers and of course our members– THANK YOU SO MUCH! You are the reason why we have made it this far. 

And to the current officers, congratulations and thank you for staying and choosing to dedicate your time and service to PICPA Abu Dhabi. This is just the beginning and I’m excited to see our plans for this fiscal year succeed! I’m grateful to all of you for working hard to make our event special. I’m proud of you!

To our members, I hope you will also consider the possibility to become an officer and to serve our organization. You will never fully understand what it means to be an officer, how happy we become, how PICPA changed our perspective and how volunteerism humbles us - until you take on the same shoes. We encourage you to try it and see for yourself.

PICPA Abu Dhabi is family and we will always be. I hope that throughout the years, our members feel that they have a family in PICPA. Good or not-so-good, victories and challenges, trials and triumphs – we are here for you.

And lastly, let me cite the verse from Galatians 6:9 “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Having reached this stage means that we did well and we will continue to do so as we pursue the high standard of service and excellence in our profession. Let us not get tired of serving our fellow professionals because we know that whatever we have planted, we will harvest the fruits in due season. I hope that you consider our organization as a blessing the way that I see it.

Again, happy 20th anniversary to PICPA Abu Dhabi and together, let’s play it forward!

To God be the glory! Maraming salamat po!