ABOUT THE FOUNDATION
Retired Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, FLP Chairman, believes that in litigations involving the civil liberty of our people, the scales of justice should weigh heavily against the government and in favor of the people, pursuant to the doctrine of strict scrutiny. But in matters affecting the economy of the country and the prosperity of our people, courts—in the absence of grave abuse of discretion—must defer to the Executive and Legislative Branches of government, in accordance with the principle of deferential interpretation of laws and executive issuances. He also believes in private enterprise as the engine of economic growth. Thus, government must promote entrepreneurship and encourage private capital. At the same time, the government has the duty of overseeing the fair and equitable distribution of private wealth to all our people, especially the poor and marginalized. The government, likewise, has the responsibility of enlarging the areas of economic growth for the benefit of future generations of Filipinos.
The Foundation for Liberty & Prosperity (FLP) was established nearly a decade ago to promote and propagate the judicial philosophy of our retired Chief Justice, summed up as “Liberty and Prosperity under the Rule of Law”. Its main agenda is to create programs that will support the country’s government and business sectors in ensuring inclusive economic growth and expansion. The FLP believes that the economic pie must not only be fairly divided but must also be enlarged so that more benefits could be spread to more people under the social justice principle of giving more law to those who have less in life. At the same time, the FLP also asserts that promoting and developing the country’s economy must be the primary responsibility of its political leaders. In many ways, these perspectives entail paradigm shifts that are necessary to attain the full potential of the Philippines as a rapid developing nation.
To mark its 10th anniversary, the FLP has commenced planning and fundraising for its ultimate projects — the Center for Liberty and Prosperity which includes a library and research center, as well as a futuristic museum that will benefit an even larger audience, and the establishment of a Prosperity Fund.
The FLP’s founding Board of Trustees was composed of Artemio V. Panganiban (retired Chief Justice), Chairman, with Hilario G. Davide Jr. (retired Chief Justice), Edilberto C. De Jesus (former Philippine Secretary of Education and President of the Asian Institute of Management), Joel Emerson J. Gregorio (FLP’s Corporate Secretary), Jennifer J. Manalili (Commissioner at the Professional Regulation Commission of the Philippines), Maria Theresa P. Mañalac (Professor at the Asian Institute of Management), Elenita C. Panganiban (former Associate Dean of the Asian Institute of Management), Washington Z. Sycip (founder of the Asian Institute of Management and Sycip Gorres Velayo and Company), and Maria Elena P. Yaptangco (President and Chief Executive of The Baron Travel Corporation), as members.
Current members of its Board of Trustees (as of August 2023) are Artemio V. Panganiban (retired Chief Justice), Chairman, with Arvin Paolo D. Cortez (Lawyer and President of the FLP Scholars Society), Edilberto C. De Jesus (former Philippine Secretary of Education and President of the Asian Institute of Management), Joel Emerson J. Gregorio (ADB Consultant, Law Professor and FLP’s Corporate Secretary), Maria Theresa P. Mañalac (Professor at the Asian Institute of Management), Estela Perlas-Bernabe (retired Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court), Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez (retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court), Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. (retired Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Chairman of SM Investments Corp.), and Maria Elena P. Yaptangco (President and Chief Executive of The Baron Travel Corporation), as members.
Successfully tapping the legal minds from the top law schools in the country, the FLP has advanced its goals through its core education programs: the Professorial Chairs on Liberty & Prosperity (co-sponsored by the Metrobank Foundation), the Legal Scholarship Program (in partnership with the Tan Yan Kee Foundation), the Dissertation Writing Contest (in partnership with the Ayala Group), and the Esmel Fellowships Program (in partnership with the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation through the Metro Pacific Investments Foundation). Proudly supporting excelling law students, the FLP now boasts of seven bar exam topnotchers and a great majority of its scholars who graduated with honors.
The Foundation for Liberty & Prosperity was issued a certificate of incorporation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 27, 2011.
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MISSION AND VISION
The Foundation’s VISION is a society that fully appreciates the necessity of “Liberty & Prosperity” and their essential interdependence and mutual inclusiveness. The Foundation’s MISSION is to educate the people, especially the members of the judicial and legal profession, on this fundamental and essential inter- relation between liberty and prosperity by supporting projects aimed at promoting, developing, assisting, and protecting liberty and prosperity under the rule of law.
The Foundation aims to perpetuate the core judicial philosophy of retired Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban that jurists and lawyers should not only safeguard the liberty of our people but must also nurture their prosperity under the rule of law. To him, justice and jobs; freedom and food; ethics and economics; democracy and development; nay, liberty and prosperity must always go together; one is useless without the other. The attainment of this dual goal involves an understanding of the intertwining relationship of law and business, and of regulation and entrepreneurship.
Accordingly, to achieve its goals, the foundation shall organize, undertake, and/or support the following projects and activities: (1) legal assistance, legal research, and legal aid; (2) seminars, workshops, trainings, classes, debates, moot courts, oratorical jousts, and other forms of instruction; (3) professorial chairs, educational scholarships, and fellowships; (4) curricula on liberty and prosperity under the rule of law; and (5) a Center for Liberty and Prosperity.
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VARIOUS SPEECHES ON LIBERTY & PROSPERITY
Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban
The following speeches of Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban offer various perspectives on how the philosophy of “Liberty and Prosperity under the Rule of Law” can be applied and understood in various contexts.
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Icons of Entrepreneurship and Nation Building
Keynote Address delivered at the General Membership Meeting of the Junior Chamber International Manila (JCI-Manila) on April 19, 2016 at the Tower Club, Philamlife Center, Paseo de Roxas, Makati City.
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Unleashing Entrepreneurial Ingenuity
Address delivered during the Opening Luncheon on February 26, 2015 of the 12th General Assembly of the Asean Law Association (ALA) held at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel, Makati City, Philippines. The three-day ALA General Assembly was held on February 26-28, 2015, and followed by the Summit of Asean Chief Justices on March 1-3, 2015 in Boracay Island, Philippines.
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Safeguard Liberty, Conquer Poverty, Share Prosperity
(Part Three — for the Business Community)
Address delivered during the 4th INTEGRITY SUMMIT held on September 19, 2014 at the Dusit Thane Hotel, Makati City, sponsored by the Makati Business Club and the European Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
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Safeguard Liberty, Conquer Poverty, Share Prosperity
(Part Two – For the Legal Profession)
Address delivered during the monthly Luncheon Fellowship of the Philippine Bar Association held at the Tower Club, Makati City on March 26, 2014.
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Safeguard Liberty, Conquer Poverty, Share Prosperity
(Part One – For the Alumni of Mapa High)
Address delivered during the Grand Alumni Homecoming of the Mapa High School held on February 23, 2014 at the Metro Tent, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
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To a Higher Level
Transcript of the extemporaneous Closing Remarks of retired Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban after Dean Sedfrey Candelaria’s Public Lecture as the holder in the Ateneo de Manila of the “CJ Panganiban Professorial Chair on Liberty and Prosperity”, held on September 19, 2012, at Justitia Room, 4th Floor, Ateneo Law School, Rockwell, Makati City.
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A Matter of Legal Philosophy
Address delivered during a Forum sponsored by the Institute of Government and Law Reform of the University of the Philippines College of Law on August 5, 2011 at the UP Malcolm Hall, Diliman, Quezon City.
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Towards a Just World Society
Address delivered before the Asia Field Representatives Meeting (FRM) of the Canadian International Development Agency on May 8, 2008 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel Ballroom, Mandaluyong City.
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Visionary Leadership By Example
Keynote address delivered on the opening day of the 9th National Ayala Young Leaders Congress (AYLC 2007) on February 7-9, 2007, at the San Miguel Corporation Management Training Center, Alfonso, Cavite.
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Safeguarding the Liberty and Nurturing the Prosperity
of the Peoples of the World
Keynote address delivered during the opening ceremonies on October 18, 2006, of the three-day Global Forum on Liberty and Prosperity, at the Shangri-La Makati Hotel, Metro Manila, Philippines.
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Spreading the Gospel of Liberty and Prosperity
Keynote address delivered by Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban during the National Forum on “Liberty and Prosperity”, held on August 24-25, 2006, at the Manila Hotel.
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