Petition Page

NOTE : The Office of the President thru Deputy Executive Secretary has
swiftly acted on this petition. On January 4, 2012,

AN OPEN LETTER TO
HIS EXCELLENCY, BENIGNO S. AQUINO lll
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

November 1, 2011

His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III.
President
Republic of the Philippines

Your Excellency:

On behalf of all Filipino Certified Public Accountants, we would like to request for the full support of the Philippine Government in concluding the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between the United States and Philippine Government. The Philippine Government support on MRA is desperately needed by all the members of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), the National Organization of Filipino CPAs in the Philippines, as well as all the members of PICPA International, the CPAs in all foreign countries outside of the Philippines, to pre-qualify on its long-overdue and 8-year pending application for an MRA with the United States International Qualification & Appraisal Board (US-IQAB) which is a branch of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Under the US-IQAB requirement to start processing an MRA agreement, the Philippines should need to include the service of “public accounting and/or auditing” in its professional accounting services, as embodied in its signed international trade negotiations between the Philippines with the United States, pursuant to the requirements of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the General Agreement on Trade-In Services (GATS). Right now, “public accounting and/or auditing”, is not yet part of the Philippines’ signed international trade negotiations with the USA.

The benefits to our country are as follows:

1. Increased remittances from hundreds of thousands of Filipino CPAs overseas,
2. Better professional opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Filipino CPAs, both in the Philippines and and other foreign countries including USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East;
3. Uplifting of academic standards for Philippine universities training Filipino CPAs to meet the US CPA requirements and be comparable thereto.

In return, you can count on the full support of the huge Filipino accountants in the global community for your administration’s future initiatives and ongoing programs towards making our Philippines a better and more progressive country. Thank you very much for your support and more power to your administration. Mabuhay !.

Very respectfully yours,

Roland Ditan
President & Chairman, PICPA INTERNATIONAL-USA, Canada, Australia, Europe & the Middle East

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PICPA INTERNATIONAL and the Filipino CPAs’ Unity Movement on Demanding the Philippine Government for Immediate Action on Memorandum of Reciprocal Agreement (MRA) between the Philippines through Philippine Board of Accountancy and the United States through the USIQAB/NASBA

Dear Fellow PICPAN/Filipino CPA,

Background

For almost 10 years now, PICPA International has been working for this MRA. During a formal hearing on petition filed for the “Revival of CPA Reciprocity for Filipino CPAs in the State of California”, between the Officers & Members of PICPA California-San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County & San Diego Chapters, represented by PICPA International, in Santa Monica, California, in September, 2003, and the Members of the Board of Directors of the California State Board of Accountancy (CSBOA), CSBOA has acknowledged, based on their research, that the primary requirement factors for a Memorandum of Agreement (MRA) for CPAs with a foreign country, namely: the 3-E’s: Education, Examination & Experience. had all been met by Filipino CPAs (as represented by PICPA International), and therefore, CSBOA had suggested instead, that in order to get the full benefit of CPA Reciprocity, the petition should be filed and requested instead, in an international level (agreement between 2 countries, instead of only the State of California).

For this reason, in the same year, 2003, CSBOA, has graciously endorsed the Filipino CPAs, represented by PICPA INTERNATIONAL, for a proposed MRA with the United States International Qualification Appraisal Board (US-IQAB), which is a branch of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), to pre-qualify for a Memorandum of Reciprocal Agreement (MRA) to practice public accountancy in the United States, and the US CPAs in the Philippines, reciprocally.

MRA Process”on-hold” due to WTO/GATS requirement

To stir Filipino CPAs’ support and participation in the proposed MRA with US-IQAB, since 2004, PICPA International has sponsored the “1^stup to the 4^thPICPA Global Convention in May, 2011, and has been communicating closely with the US-IQAB, by inviting the Chairman, William Treacy, as the Keynote Speaker. However, US-IQAB can not start the formal processing of the MRA agreement, because the Philippine Government has not complied yet with the pre-requisite which is the “inclusion of the auditing services in the practice of international public accountancy”, under its signed international trade agreement with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and General Agreement on Trade-In Services (GATS). PICPA International had tried several communications and follow-ups with the different government agencies in the Philippines (ie. thru the Philippine Consulate Offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Secretary of Dept. of Trade & Industry (DTI), Dept. of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Office of the Undersecretary of International Economic Relations (OUIER); Office of the President of the Philippines, 2 time during the, Pres. Arroyo Administration; this is also the 2 time during Pres. PNoy Aquino Administration; Philippine Board of Accountancy c/o Chairman Atty. Eugene Mateo). All of the above communications were never responded by any agency of the Philippines.

THIS FORMAL PETITION NOW IS A GLOBAL MOVEMENT FOR ALL FILIPINO CPAS That is why PICPA INTERNATIONAL is demanding that the Philippine Government should SUPPORT and PUSH for the creation and approval of a “Memorandum of Reciprocal Agreement (MRA) between the Philippine Government (to be represented by the Philippine Board of Accountancy-PBOA) and the United States International Qualification Appraisal board (US-IQAB), a branch of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), in the practice of public accountancy between these 2 countries. We, (PICPA INTERNATIONAL Members), further, demand action on the Philippine Government to sign immediately, its “long-been overdue” international trade commitment to include “auditing services” in its “public accountancy practice” under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and General Agreement on Trade-In Services (GATS) requirements, to suffice the US-IQAB’s pre-qualifying requirement for an MRA petition-request by foreign CPAs to be “formally started.”. For almost a decade now, since 2003, this pre-requisite under the WTO/GATS requirement, has “de-railed” PICPA International’s MRA petition with US-IQAB.

PLEASE JOIN US IN CO-SIGNING PICPA INTERNATIONAL’S LETTER DEMANDING ACTION ON OUR PETION-REQUEST FOR A MEMORANDUM OF RECIPROCAL AGREEMENT (MRA) BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT REPRESENTED BY THE PHILIPPINE BOARD OF ACCOUNTANCY (PBOA), AND THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL QUALIFICATION APPRAISAL BOARD (US-IQAB)/NASBA/AICPA

On behalf of the Executive Committee of PICPA INTERNATIONAL & all its Officers & Member-Chapters, we thank you all for your support ! Mabuhay to all Filipino CPAs and Mabuhay to PICPA!

For the Executive Committee, PICPA INTERNATIONAL

Roland Ditan,

President & Chairman USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia, Middle East & Other Foreign Countries

ADD YOUR NAME HERE T A K E ACTION NOW !!! (To learn more about this campaign movement, send email to: info@picpainternational.org)