It’s been 20 years since Republic Act No. 9298, otherwise known as the Philippine Accountancy Act of 2004” was enacted and implemented. Twenty years ago, artificial intelligence was nonexistent. Matters of sustainability, ethics and governance, international collaborations, and many other aspects of accountancy practice were all in their infancy stages and nowhere had a substantial impact on the area of public practice. Twenty years ago, the state of the accountancy field was completely different now, and many ideas and practices before found themselves irrelevant in this generation.
Amid the rapid evolution and challenges in the accountancy field, one aspect remains glaringly outdated – the Philippine Accountancy Act of 2004.
As the National President of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants, I have represented the country at various international forums and conventions and have interacted with professional accountancy organizations and regulatory bodies from different jurisdictions across the globe. I have been exposed to different best practices of some of the biggest professional accountancy organizations and truth be told, some provisions of our own Accountancy Act may have contributed to the lagging of Filipino accountants in terms of professional growth and competencies to be at par with our international counterparts. A number of professional accountancy bodies in other parts of the world have already embraced the Accounting Technicians, Tax Technicians, Cost Accountants, and other specialized practice of accountancy. Our law has yet to recognize these specialized fields and remain centered on the practice of accountancy by the Certified Public Accountants, more popularly known as the CPAs.
There were initiatives in the past made by stakeholders of the accountancy profession, to have the accountancy law to be revisited and hopefully, amended, to conform with the needs of the profession to make the practice of accountancy more global. Still at present, such initiatives remain in the not-so-priority list of our legislators, and the possibility seems to be still in limbo, as no significant progress to this move in the legislative body of our country.
The first Accountancy Law – Act No. 3105, or the Act Regulating the Practice of Public Accounting; Creating a Board of Accountancy; Providing for Examination, for the Granting of Certificates and the Registration of Certified Public Accountants; for the Suspension of Revocation of Certificates and for Other Purposes, was enacted on March 17, 1923.
The law was only repealed when Republic Act No. 5166, or the Accountancy Act of 1967, was enacted last August 4, 1967. It took 44 years for the old law to be repealed. Then Presidential Decree No. 692, or the Revised Accountancy Law was passed on May 5, 1975 by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Then, finally, the present Republic Act No. 9298, or the Philippine Accountancy Act of 2004, was enacted on May 13, 2004.
From its original inception in 1923, the Accountancy Law in the Philippines has undergone multiple amendments and repeals, so that its provisions will continue to be relevant to the needs and circumstances at the time the law was enacted. The predecessor of the present accountancy act was PD No. 692, which took at least 29 years before it was repealed by the new accountancy law in 2004.
Given the fast-paced changes in the circumstances and the condition of the practice of the accountancy profession in the country, waiting for another 29 years for the accountancy law to get that much-needed amendments or repeals is quite strenuous for the profession with visions to be one of the leaders in global accountancy practice.