• Mr Khalid Hassan, Country Director of International Labour Organization – Manila,
• Ms Boots Geotina-Garcia, Chairperson of the Philippine Women’s Economic Network,
• Ms Julia Abad, Executive Director of the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment,
• Dr Julia Newton-Howes, Chief Executive Officer of Investing in Women,
• Ms Diana Pardo-Aguilar, ECOP Vice President and Chairperson of the ECOP Diversity and Inclusion Committee,
• PHILWEN Board of Trustees,
• Other colleagues in ECOP,
• Women business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives,
• Diversity and inclusion champions,
• Guests, Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to the virtual launching event of ECOP’s D&I Committee, entitled “The 21st Century Employer: Champions of Gender Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion”.

Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace has always been a long-standing vision of ECOP. Ever since the establishment of ECOP as the single voice of Philippine employers, it has been pushing for the promotion of workplace gender equality and fair treatment of workers. ECOP’s primary way of doing this is by ensuring that companies comply with labor laws and standards, and even international instruments.

Even before the establishment of this committee, ECOP already had existing initiatives under its Women and Gender Committee that promote awareness and encourage employers to adapt company policies and practices that are gender-responsive and protect workers from all sorts of discrimination, and even violence, in the workplace. However, it came to a point that the Committee became inactive probably due to the changing priorities of the members. Without the right push and due to lack of a proactive mechanism that will oversee program implementation, the succeeding efforts remained fragmented and uncoordinated. With the growing recognition and importance of women empowerment, diversity, and inclusion and the new-found relationship with the Philippine Women’s Economic Network and the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment, ECOP felt the inspiration and motivation to revamp the old committee and institutionalize the Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

It was last year when ECOP and PhilWEN, with the moral and technical support of the International Labor Organization, started putting the pieces together. My appreciation to the Committee Chair ECOP Vice President Diana Pardo-Aguilar and Committee co-chair PHILWEN Chairperson Ma. Aurora “Boots” Geotina-Garcia for working hard in laying the cornerstone for the 21st Century Employer – one that champions workplace gender equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Today, we witness the formal launch, not just of Committee, but also of the formal partnership of ECOP and PhilWEN in terms of policy advocacy, capacity-building, and enterprise-level intervention as both organizations champion the tenets of equality and non-discrimination in the workplace.
We thank the ILO for the support, especially through the WOMEN in STEM project, which paved the way for this collaboration with PHILWEN. Through the MOA that we will sign later, we hope to be able to combine and synergize our efforts and jointly reach our common goal.

Allow me to take this opportunity to recognize the first few companies who heeded to the call of joining ECOP’s D&I Committee. These companies are Cargill Philippines, CBI Philippines, Globe Telecom, Laguna Metts Corporation, Nestle Philippines, Pearson Management Services Philippines, Punongbayan and Araullo, and Wilhelmsen-Smith Bell Manning, Inc.

We urge companies and organizations to become members of this Committee to strengthen its grasp of reality and ensure the responsiveness of activities and programs that it will implement in the future. Alongside the establishment of this committee is the hope of ECOP to encourage companies to become more aware on how to create a safe workplace for its employees.'

Th is only the beginning. We still have a long way to go. Join ECOP and PHILWEN in this long journey and let us help shape the future of business for the better in our country. I hope you find inspiration to become 21st century employers.

Thank you very much for attending and mabuhay tayong lahat.