From its inception and founding in 1929, the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants has been at the forefront of the Accountancy profession as the integrated professional organization of certified public accountants (CPAs) duly recognized and accredited by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
Inarguably the indomitable force that binds the country’s accounting professionals, PICPA nurtures the professional practice in the four sectors: public practice, commerce and industry, government and academe. PICPA also provides the avenues for Filipino CPAs to continuously develop holistic, relevant and meaningful educational and social experiences through an array of conventions, seminars, summits, conferences, webinars and other learning activities.
Since after WWII, PICPA has continually conducted the Annual National Convention or ANC, a gathering of all CPAs nationwide for the purpose of integrating its membership to further promote the quality of accounting practice in the country. The ANC has become the biggest and most awaited mother of all PICPA activities, spearheaded by the sponsoring PICPA Chapters within the Region where the incumbent PICPA National President hails from. The primary goal is to spotlight the President’s Region: the culture, the people, business opportunities, natural resources and discoveries unique to the region. This exercise of varying ANC venues aims to financially assist the different Regions and Chapters of PICPA, creating for them a big-revenue event that would lift the professional and financial standing of the concerned PICPA units of the sponsoring Region, thus substantially and consequentially contributing to the strengthening of the organization.
With the PICPA National Presidency rotating annually from Metro Manila, Visayas (Eastern and Western), Luzon (Bicol, Central Luzon, Northern Luzon and Southern Tagalog) and Mindanao (Southern Mindanao and Northern Mindanao), the ANC is the cornucopia of cultural experiences that PICPAns certainly expect and enjoy every year.
Now on its 77th year, the PICPA ANC 2022 was held in the beautiful Island of Cebu, Eastern Visayas, Region of current PICPA National President Erwin Vincent G. Alcala. The 4000-strong in-person attendance and the roughly one thousand online joiners of the event made this first hybrid ANC a huge success. More than thirty distinguished speakers from various organizations, agencies and industries graced the event, sharing their expertise on relevant technical content useful to the Filipino CPAs. Topics such as corporate governance, management of environmental and social issues, digital transformation, cybersecurity, modern workforce, agile leadership and more – revved up the spirits and energy of the knowledge-yearning PICPAns who attended the convention. Business opportunities session and networking capped the newly introduced sports tournaments that included golf, tennis, badminton, bowling, chess and even Mobile Legends, for the generation of digital game enthusiasts. The evenings glittered with the convention’s star-studded activities: the Chapter Presidents’ Meeting, the Governor’s Night which featured the Past National Presidents’ recognition and welcome reception night, the National Awarding Ceremonies, the Welcome Concert, and finally the Regional Night which culminated in the presentation of the Regional and Chapter Awards.
The 77th PICPA ANC is indeed a game-changer as the first hybrid convention done with the face-to-face cum online modality that defied the pandemic’s disruptive play. PICPA, through ANC has proven that resiliency lives and continuously resonates in its agile leadership and dynamic membership
It is the dawn of the new era of accountancy in the country as PICPA helped launch PRC’s Philippine Qualification Framework – Career Progression and Specialization Program. Soon-to-rise as well is the PICPA Academy. Evidently, many other technological and digital developments are upcoming starpoints in the horizon and the ANC is but one of the countless tools that offer meaningful learning takeaways and professional advancement to the Filipino CPAs.
Beyond earning the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) units, crossing the border and cultural divide, PICPAns are ready to journey to their true north.