After two false starts, plus one near-collision with a virus, we finally pushed through with our MB Sustainability Focus Session on Financial Literacy. I can laugh and joke about it now; but in all honesty, we were sorely frustrated by how events had conspired to make this Focus Session at the De La Salle University campus on Taft Avenue, a comedy of errors and near-misses.

Culprits for the false starts were a transport strike, then a typhoon – making the students’ physical attendance at the session a dubious circumstance. Then the influenza virus had La Salle shifting to online classes on the new trice-scheduled day for the session. Fortunately, Jingo Badillo, executive director for Strategic Communications at the university, paved the way for us to push through. And right here, my special thanks go to Jingo, to Dean Reynaldo Bautista and Assistant Dean Nelson Guillen of the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business, and to the University Sustainability Office (USO).

My sincere gratitude to Senator Bam Aquino and to Mr. Ben Diokno of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas, for offering inspiring messages to open and keynote the day. To our brand sponsors, EastWest Bank, GCash, GoTyme Bank, HSBC, and Union Bank; I can only hope you were happy with your participation and the opportunity to go face to face with the students, imparting your potent messages of financial literacy and it’s connections to sustainability – how a number of the UN Sustainability Development Goals require a modicum of financial literacy to get off the ground, and effectively trickle down to the general populace.

To our host Sam Thurman of 1Lit, happy to have joined you in the two open panel discussion segments of the day. This was when we’d bring back the speakers of the morning, and of the afternoon session, for a free-for-all that included questions coming from the students. This was a great eye-opener as a number of the questions from the audience had to do with investing options, and knowing how to sift through the multitude of offers, promotions, and scams that can be found on social media. Anyone and everyone is after the money of these young adults, and the students do want to begin investing, and growing what they have. The issues here are literacy, discernment, and then knowing how to make the right decisions.

Another strong discussion point was how the trickle down of both financial literacy and sustainability still needs the transition to being talked about, and explained, in Filipino. By and large, the conversation is stuck in English, and it does create a veneer of elitism, and that it’s a message that only concerns a particular strata of society.

The supreme irony is that nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s often asked, of what use is sustainability and resilience when you’re living in a substandard, ramshackle shanty; or one is eking out a living that barely meets the family’s needs. It’s argued that if you don’t even know how you’ll pay for your meal that evening, of what concern is it that there’s too much plastic waste in the waterways, or that financial literacy is not being explained in your transient settler community?

Ironic, as it’s the more vulnerable in society who stand to gain the most if sustainability and the UN SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals) were properly adhered to. Those of a higher income level have more choices and options when facing natural disasters, and instances of crisis. It those whose survival stand of unsure footing, on precarious ground; who suffer the most during these times of instability and calamities. It’s harder for them to bounce back, recover.

For us who organize and mount these events, one valuable lesson moving forward would be, be grateful for what you get, and make the best of the circumstances handed to us. I know my “partners in crime,” Jordan, Irish, Leslie, Jaime, JD and the MBrand and video teams all put out their very best in making this problematic Focus Session happen, and still be counted as a success.

Later this week, there is much to look forward to, as our MB Sustainability Forum 2025, our fourth iteration, happens this Nov. 19 and 20 at the National University Sampaloc. This is our annual forum that’s spread over two days with a minimum of 16 speakers, and marked by a broad diversity in both the messaging and in the practice of sustainability. It’s our fervent hope that our audience will gain meaningful insights on the possibility of sustainability, and understand why it has to happen now!

Brands participating this year include Aboitiz Power, Arthaland, Ayala Land, BPI, Globe, Megaworld, PLDT Home, SM Investments, The Medical City, Torre Lorenzo, and Steel Asia. Our hotel venue partner is Lanson Place of SM Hotels and Conventions.