Oath

Taking of New CPAs

29 November 2013
Philippine International Convention Center
Pasay City

Maria Gracia M. Pulido Tan
Chairperson, Commission on Audit
Guest of Honor and Keynote Speaker


Thank you very much for inviting me to your oath taking. I am very honored. I hope it is a
milestone you will always remember and celebrate.

Thirty-six years ago, I was in this same hall taking mine. Never did it cross my mind that one day,
I will be addressing newly minted CPAs on their oath taking. Neither did I think much of the
significance of that day. It simply meant for me the culmination of my efforts at being an
obedient daughter. You see, I did not want to be an accountant. I wanted to be a doctor. I was
constrained to take up accounting only upon the prodding of my parents. And being the eldest
of seven children, and with a full government scholarship at the UP for the course, I thought it
was the most practical thing to do at that point in my life to save my parents money.

It was a struggle to study. I found accounting boring and tedious and so detached from human
interaction. I was kept afloat only by my resolve to finish it for the sake of my parents, and the
extracurricular activities in school, which I tremendously enjoyed. I was so bored and restless
that I finished the course in four-and-a-half years instead of the five that is required in UP for a
BSBAA. At review school, I was just as bored and restless, coming in late and cutting classes
and hardly doing my practice sets. Sounds familiar? My reviewers sought to dissuade me from
taking the Board exams; I suppose they thought I would not make it and that would not be
good for their record, specially because I belonged to their first batch of reviewees then. Of
course, I insisted, because my parents expected me to. After the first Saturday of the exams,
my resolve crumbled; I realized how ill-prepared I was and thought of quitting. Anyway, I
thought to myself, I dont intend naman to work as an accountant.


But God worked on His plans for me through genuine and caring friends my best friends to
this day - who practically dragged me out of bed to bring me to the exams. To my surprise, and
perhaps more pleasantly so to my reviewers, I made it. My parents were ecstatic, and the
whole little town where I grew up was up on its feet. I am sure it is the same for you, for the
CPA Board Exams is one of the toughest if not THE toughest government licensure exams. I
must confess that if I flunked the Bar exams, I would have repeated it, but if I flunked the CPA
Board exams, I would NOT have taken it again. Nakakaloka, di ba? Yet, passing the board did
not excite me, being an accountant didnt excite me, because an accountant I did not want to
be. I knew that my mother, who was with me at my oath taking, was sad at my lack of
enthusiasm, and so I dedicate this great honor of addressing you today to her memory. My
mother and my father were right and Gods instruments in fact in fulfilling His plans for me.

This is not exactly the kind of story that is typically told on a momentous occasion like this, and I
hope it does not detract from your joy and the overwhelming pride of your parents and family
in your outstanding accomplishment. I spoke of my personal journey to becoming a CPA, to
impart to you the greatest lessons I have learned that now serve me well as a public servant.
As it is said, with age comes wisdom; and I say, the best way to inspire is not to talk from
abstractions but to share concrete experiences and lessons learned.

I have learned and come to appreciate that Accounting IS a noble profession. . I found it boring
and tedious only because it was not my field of interest then. Neither is it detached from
human interaction; on the contrary, it brings to life the collective inputs and outputs of any
individual, organization or society and measures their impact on commerce, education,
agriculture, shelter, food, health the whole gamut of human need and development. It is not
merely the basis for business decisions, as Meigs & Johnson put it; accounting is an integral
building block of a nation and its people.

Imagine then the power of your work and its impact to society; as such, be ready to discharge
the highest requirements of competence and integrity in all its areas, be it bookkeeping, audit,
management services, controllership, finance. This is exactly the oath you are about to take. In

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pursuing your profession, please be always mindful that you are first and foremost citizens of
the Republic and CPAs only second. You owe fidelity not to your employer or business, but to
the Constitution and laws of the Philippines. Do not lose the idealism of your youth; rather, let
it imbue and animate your work at every opportunity.

I have also learned that integrity is not just a word or slogan. Integrity is that little voice in your
heart that tells you right from wrong, your inner compass to the path of honesty and decency,
specially when no one is looking. It is conscience; it is good manners and right conduct. It is a
conscious effort to comply daily with the nations laws and our professions rules of conduct
and code of ethics. Remember, your organization, the community and ultimately the public,
rely on your work product to form opinions or make decisions. That is how important and
significant our work is as CPAS. As such, our work must not only be competent but more
importantly trustworthy as well and reflect faithfulness to ethical standards, not just the
technical rules.

It is said that the best and most credible whistleblowers of malpractices are the accountants,
because they are the most intimately involved in the financial transactions of their
organizations. Just recall the revelations of the whistleblowers in the Napoles case. But should
we wait to become whistleblowers when at the outset, we have the power and opportunity to
prevent malpractices from happening? Also recall Enron, Fortune Magazines Americas Most
Innovative Company for six consecutive years, and the resulting fallout that put the world in
deep and long financial crisis. The white-collar crimes from irresponsible accounting have since
been unmasked and statistics show that losses from such are dramatically higher than
combined losses from the ordinary crimes of robbery and theft. Please, be innovative and
creative if you must, but do not cheat.

I have also learned that to discharge your professional responsibilities with utmost integrity will
take tremendous moral strength and conviction. You will have to take the risk of being
unpopular, sneered at for being a killjoy, hindi marunong makisama. Worse, you could lose out
on promotion or even lose your job completely. Worst, you could be publicly ridiculed, or

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targeted for physical and emotional harm, along with your loved ones. But do not be afraid,
there is a greater force than all of these, a Supreme Being we call God to whom we are all
ultimately esponsible. For as long as you stand by the truth and carry out your work to the best
of your abilities with due regard to all applicable rules of engagement and conduct, our God will
not let any of these earthly obsessions defeat you. Hold your head high, there is nothing
shameful about being honest and decent.

I have also learned that the highest professional honor is found in serving country. This is not
to say that you should work in government to achieve this, although I must say that our country
needs you and I encourage you to consider making a career in government. We have
thousands of unfilled CPA positions in the Commission on Audit, waiting for courageous young
men and women who have a deep love for country and genuine desire to make a significant
contribution to good governance and accountability in public service. It is hard and delicate
work as you may have seen from recent goings-on, but I assure you of rich rewards, the kind
that no money can ever buy the fulfillment of being a part of meaningful and positive change.
Just think of the laborious work in the Commission on Audit that we put into our Special Audit
of the PDAF, the personal and professional attacks we specially myself - have had to contend
with because of it, and the political impact it has created, not to mention the recent scrapping
of the pork barrel by the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional. We at the Commission are
truly humbled that our work has contributed immensely to the restoration of the check and
balance in our government.

Of course, you can serve country even in the private sector. But the bottomline is always love
for country. Bear in mind that the private sector is an integral part of the nation, and whatever
happens or does not happen there impacts the country as a whole in great ways. Think of the
captains of industry, the millions of BPO workers, the service crews of fastfood chains, our
world-class managers, they all significantly contribute to the wealth and development of our
country. And behind or beside or in all of them is a CPA, hammering through many sleepless
nights recording, analyzing, auditing, and managing their accounts. I will say it again, fidelity to

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your oath should therefore be your overriding goal in the discharge of your professional
responsibilities, whether in or out of government.

And I have learned, young men and women, that to whom much is given, much is truly
expected. You have been blessed with talents and opportunities that have enabled you to
become CPAs. It is not an accident or by sheer merit alone that you are about to take your oath
as CPAs. Use your talents well in the service of the greater good. They are not ours to keep, to
merely line our pockets, or achieve power. We are only stewards of these bounties, and just as
we account for material things on earth, we will inevitably render an account of them before
our God.

My friends, my professional colleagues, welcome to the real world. Thank you for your
perseverance, you can now append the iconic CPA to your name. And as you forge ahead to
success, please always remember to thank your parents, significant others and families for their
love and support. This day belongs to them as well, and everyday hereafter. Let us also thank
your teachers, mentors, reviewers, school administrators, the manongs and manangs who
made school your second home, they are in each and everyone of you and will always be part
of your journey, wherever this will take you. Most of all, let us thank God for bringing you to
this joyful day; may He continue to guide and light you in all your undertakings. Again,
congratulations and keep up the good work!