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My wife will be traveling once again. Upon seeing her possible return flight schedules, an interesting, but uninspiring dilemma surfaced: would she take an earlier flight, but will be forced to face Friday night traffic from the airport to our house; or leave a day later to avoid the Friday congestion, but will not be able to spend Saturday with our kids? Such a dilemma, or some other more critical version of it, faces us constantly.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued additional disclosure requirements, especially for publicly listed entities. Reporting on material-related party transactions and sustainability have been added to the list of reporting requirements. These reporting requirements highlight the different stakeholders’ needs for more transparency from listed entities, which might be extended to non-listed entities as shared by SEC Commission Kelvin Lee during his presentation in the recently held Sustainability Forum of P&A Grant Thornton and Financial Executives of the Philippines last October 10.

ABOUT 12 years ago, I took my Certified Public Accountant Licensure Examination (CPALE). The results came out only after a few days. Soon afterward, I immediately faced the decision of choosing the type of accounting practice I would pursue.

Since we were students, we have never stopped attending meetings. In every organization or group we belong to, meetings are a normal occurrence. Especially now that we are part of the workforce, we have either called or been called into one. Every time I look at my calendar in the morning, the happiest times are those when there are no scheduled meetings for the day. On those rare occasions, I have the entire day to face my email—another one of those things that we have too much of in our lives—and tasks.

I had a major breakthrough yesterday: I was again able to reach the office within an hour, in 45 minutes to be exact. Over the past month, I have been spending two to three hours on the road every morning. That is essentially cruising the streets of Metro Manila at a speed of six to nine kilometers an hour! At least, it is still faster than the average walking speed of 5 kph. What did I do differently to achieve my “under an hour” travel time? Nothing special, really. I just left our house 30 minutes earlier than the usual 5:30 a.m. cutoff.

“Dad, I’m sad,” said a melancholic voice from the other end of the line. The everyday heavy traffic made it now almost impossible for me to see my little girls during weekdays. Our daily interactions are now heavily dependent on mobile phones. Such a circumstance is oftentimes exacerbated when words such as “Dad, I’m sad” are being substituted for “Hi, Dad” as you start a conversation over the phone.

The moment we had our third daughter, I was very conscious of the fact that we now have a middle child in the family. At the onset, I really wanted to pay very particular attention to our second one, because I did not want her to ever feel that she is being left out. Over the past few weeks, however, I have been noticing that the situation I have tried to avoid is happening.

Contestants for Little Miss Philippines on a noontime variety show were often asked the question: “Ano gusto mong maging paglaki mo? (What do you want to be when you grow up?)” The question brims with hope for the future. Today, however, kids have access to much more information; and so, the same question brings with it more than just hope. In a way, it also makes kids worried.