Arthur Fuentes

Article (news)

Boardroom Tea

Salve Ibaňez

ABS-CBN News

Today, allow me to share my musings on financial inclusion that I have shared at the lightning talk rounds at the Asian Development Bank’s three-day Asian Finance Forum.   When I was five, I saw my dad beat up my mom. They were fighting over money. The image of my mom with blood streaming down the side of her face registered in my head. But besides having the feeling that no one could be safe in this world, I realize now I did not really know at the time what it all meant.  Until the next couple of days. And months. And years.  We lived in a remote barangay in a remote town in Bicol, south of Manila. I had two huge turtles swimming in a makeshift pool beside our house near the ocean with pristine white pebbly sand. There was no space for them in the small house my mom and my sisters and I were going to move to in Legazpi City. I would leave my turtles behind.  Do you know that when you tease turtles, they cry real tears? Kids teased them that I was going away, and as they surfaced to eat the small fish I would feed them, I swear I saw real tears.  They are beautiful creatures. Creatures I did not understand. But creatures that were part of a universe, so precious, so beautiful.When we left, my uncles killed them for pulutan or bar chow.  It was tough for our family of six. My mom was a public school teacher. She wrote multiplication tables on our unpainted wooden living room walls. I raided the school library until I had read every single book because we had no TV.I became a UP Government Scholar at UP Diliman and became a journalist. There, I saw my experience was nothing compared to the millions of Filipinos, so beautiful like my turtles, but so vulnerable.  I was a nobody. The only thing that I could do was expand my coverage of macro and microeconomics, democratize access to information that might allow the ordinary human being to at least handle their money better, so that they could handle other things better.I lobbied with my very supportive editors — Shiela Samonte-Pesayco and Ping Galang — to give me a page in the newspaper I will up with information that would turn our people into more savvy financial consumers.   How to get out of debt.  What is inflation?  What is compounding interest and why it matters? How to protect yourself from scammers.  What does GDP mean for your wallet? I told them I didn’t need a raise nor a budget.  My next editor Margie Espino, who is now an angel in heaven, brought all my thoughts and stories to Baby Magazine and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.   ABS-CBN News Channel aired On The Money for 12 long years — the longest-running internally funded TV show that taught 12 million OFWs around the world about how they can come home with savings. DZMM Teleradyo brought those conversations to Filipinos still hooked to their radio channels, now through online channels. I blogged, I vlogged, and now TikTok wherever the Filipinos are. No, I don’t dance. Not yet!This was the 90s to 2025, and I saw how government and corporations evolved when it came to financial inclusion. How the poor never had a chance because they had no credit footprint — and now there are credit bureaus and fintechs using alternative data. I saw how nano entrepreneurs had nothing but loan sharks to help them grow their businesses — and now there are digital banks and financing companies that mentor them, not just lend to them.But it wasn’t just about money. Economic freedom is the most basic human freedom. It is a prerequisite to enjoying all other freedoms.Filipinos who worry about their next meal. Or where their next rent will be coming from, or payment for cancer treatments, will sell their votes, and we cannot let that happen anymore.  Since I was 5, I noticed that my nervous system reacts against injustice. Injustice against those who have nothing, anyone who gets hurt — even when it’s their fault. Injustice created by corruption — the biggest form of financial scam. Injustice against sea turtles and sloths and oceans and elephants.  It matters to me that everybody has equality of opportunity.  Now in my 50s, I finally understand that everything that happens in life is connected. We need to figure out our role, what we can do, what we cannot do, and what we can do together. This is the age of networks — the things that we do together are the things that succeed the most to help the people who need help the most.  Here’s an idea from someone who needed help the most.  How about we change the way we score creditworthiness so that it is not just about being on time with payments?  For the bankers and lenders here, please don’t run out of the room just yet!How about making borrowers multi-dimensional, and recognizing their efforts at talking to a financial coach, taking the time to number-crunch their total indebtedness, setting up a debt payment push plan, budget, having an education plan, a risk management plan, and a retirement plan.  You want them to pay you even after defaulting — help them! Don’t leave them to loan sharks. Create point systems that recognize learning in digital literacy. Gamify it. Unless you truly connect financial education to financial incentives, literacy efforts will take loooong to take root. We need to truly recognize that financial empowerment is not just about money, but a business model that embraces it will make more money.  It should be simple enough. But why haven’t we done it yet? Us, the poor, we work hard. We try so hard. But we don’t stand a chance when the system is not structured to help.  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about sea turtles. If we don’t end plastic pollution, they don’t stand a chance. If Filipinos don’t vote wisely, we don’t stand a chance.  But looking at a room full of people like this, especially the lenders who haven’t run away, I tell myself calm down. So many are wracking their brains to help. They are bigger than you, LITERALLY, more powerful than you, and have more resources.  We can still create a better world.It&#x27;s just a matter of time.As we say here in Filipino: Bawal mapagod. Ang daming tumutulong.

Economic freedom is the most basic human freedom. It is a prerequisite to enjoying all other freedoms.

Economic freedom is the most basic human freedom. It is a prerequisite to enjoying all other freedoms.

Boardroom Tea: How financial literacy can lead to economic freedom

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Boardroom Tea: How financial literacy can lead to economic freedom

Salve Ibaňez,

ABS-CBN News

Published Sep 24, 2025 10:00 PM PHT

Read More:

financial literacy

economic freedom

personal finance

Boardroom Tea

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