Tag: September 16

IT WAS a case of “if you can’t join them, beat them.”

In 1946 when Filipinos were not allowed to partner with British accounting firms, Thomasian bookkeeper Washington “Wash” SyCip dared to go against these Goliaths and show them the consequences of their discrimination.

He sought to beat them in their own game, in their home court.

SyCip established his own auditing firm that would eventually become the country’s largest professional services powerhouse, the SyCip, Gorres and Velayo (SGV) Group (formerly W. SyCip & Co.).

“Those (British) firms were all Caucasians, and they had a fairly general policy that partners were Caucasians. From my viewpoint I was as good as anyone and should not be subjected to discrimination in my own country,” SyCip said in his biography titled Wash: Only a Bookkeeper (SGV Foundation and AIM Scientific Research Foundation Inc., 2009) written by Jose “Butch” Dalisay Jr.