A summa cum laude graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, former investment banker 'Ting' Roxas once urged technocrats to reexamine their analytical paradigms, and for citizens to become the 'third force' for meaningful change

MANILA, Philippines – He was unlike most of the top Filipino economists who have served in government.

Filipino technocrat-turned-green activist and development worker Sixto “Ting” Kalaw Roxas died on Wednesday, July 24. He was 96. 

His son-in-law Philip Camara confirmed Roxas’ passing in a Facebook post on Thursday, July 25. 

“It is with great sorrow that I share the news of the passing of Sixto Kalaw Roxas, an economist whose dedication and intellect transformed the way we perceive economics,” Camara said. 

Roxas, also known as SKR, was the chief economic planner during the administration of former president Diosdado Macapagal, and he continued to be an economic adviser to Ferdinand E. Marcos prior to the declaration of Martial Law in 1972. 

He headed the National Economic Council during the Macapagal administration. The NEC is the precursor of what is now the Philippines’ economic planning agency, the National Economic and Development Authority or NEDA.

Roxas was a unique economist because he transitioned into a green activist and development worker after retiring from the corporate world in 1982. He even grew his gray hair long and looked like a hippie when he was in his late 60s and 70s after he immersed himself in development work with various nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

 “He focused on actualizing intense localization and area management, showcasing in the elegance of mathematics and economic formulas to demonstrate how policies of inclusivity, respect for nature, and prioritizing the needs of primary producers will lead to more equitable and higher incomes at both national and community levels,” Camara, also a development worker, said. 

He added that Roxas “eloquently spoke out against the dualism in our country, where the import-export global framework widened the gap in living standards between primary producers and those who controlled government bureaucracy and large corporations invariably dominating various economic sectors but having little local multiplier impact especially with the rural sector.” 

Bancom CEO

Early in his professional career, he was a much sought-after economist and served in various financial enterprises and institutions. 

He pioneered investment banking in the Philippines following the publication of his manual, “A Short-term Treasury Bills Market for the Philippines.”

Roxas is most famous for being the CEO of the Bancom Group, an investment banking enterprise in the Philippines and Asia.  

“Bancom developed a market for trading in government and commercial paper of all maturities and tenors. In no time at all, under Bancom’s leadership, a market came into being in the Philippines. Ting Roxas became the man of the hour and Bancom the institution of the hour,” wrote economic journalist Rudy Romero in a tribute to Roxas in 2015. 

“With the financial talent and creativity that it was able to put together, Bancom became something of an icon. Indeed, a ranking company official was heard to make reference at a conference to the ‘Bancom Man,'” Romero said.

After leaving the corporate world in 1982, Roxas went into local development work. After the local government law was passed in 1991, he pioneered in the development of the money market for municipal bonds, which allow local governments to finance their own projects, reducing their dependence on their Internal Revenue Allotment.

He joined the board of the Philippines’ oldest development NGO, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), which was revived by former agrarian reform secretary Horacio “Boy” Morales and green activist Isagani Serrano after they were released from prison following the EDSA People Power Revolution in February 1986.

“With his teaching and thinking, [SKR] helped mold PRRM’s sustainable area development program in the late ’80s, influencing every other program and advocacy that followed. We thank and honor him and pay tribute to his generous and meaningful life!” PRRM said in a post on Thursday. 

PRRM said Roxas pushed for an “ecosystems-based, community-centered organization and management system under which enterprise stockholder interest is rendered subsidiary to community stakeholder wealth and welfare.”

Other tributes were posted in the comments to Camara’s post, including one from educator Jose Maria Bonifacio Escoda, who wrote that Roxas was among the first summa cum laude graduates of Ateneo de Manila University, where he finished a bachelor of arts degree. Roxas completed his master’s in economics at Fordham University, one of the top schools in New York.

Escoda also said Roxas brought under his wing “Ateneo’s young bright boys, including Manny V. Pangilinan,” now head of the MVP Group of Companies that encompasses major enterprises like PLDT Incorporated, Maynilad, and Manila Electric Company.

He said Roxas was “one of the brains behind the AIM (Asian Institute of Management)” – where Roxas once served as president – and “became the first Filipino to occupy the highest position in an American bank – as VP (vice-president) of American Express Bank” in New York in the 1970s. 

Roxas spent 30 years in the world of investment banking and 45 years doing development work with NGOs. He was also an economics lecturer at Fordham University, Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines, and a lecturer in ecological social science at Miriam College and the Asian Social Institute.

Lessons from EDSA 1 and 2

One of Roxas’ lesser-known books is Juetengate: The Parable of a Nation in Crisis, published in December 2000 amid the impeachment trial of then-president Joseph Estrada and before he was deposed via the so-called second EDSA People Power Revolution in January 2001.

In his note written on the book that he gave to this author in January 2001, Roxas said, “I hope this helps to give you an understanding of EDSA 2 at a more fundamental level.” 

The book was published by Bancom Foundation, composed of executives and staff of the old Bancom Group of Companies. 

In the book’s introduction, Roxas urged those in government, business, and civil society to learn from the economic crises during the Marcos and Estrada years. 

“That is where we are. Marcos [Sr.] and Estrada have brought us to the two extremes of our system – Marcos the peak and Estrada the pit, the sublime and the ridiculous,” he wrote 24 years ago, and 16 years before Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte became president. 

“If Juetengate does not bring us to our senses and make us realize that this system is bankrupt, then we deserve to dance…to our death,” he said, referring to the jueteng payoff scandal of Estrada.

“We are caught in a cycle. It seems inexorable because each time we have merely fallen back on the same ideological, political, and technological convictions that bring on the crisis…. We change a regime by electoral process of mass action. We put in a different set of leaders. But as long as the science, the technology, the institutions, and the technocracy remain the same, we have accomplished no real change. We continue to live by the same set of convictions. We have not changed our world. We have merely installed a new set of people to run it,” he said.

He then appealed to citizens in the public and private sectors to change the governance paradigm.

“This book is a plea for everyone to look beyond the present crisis to what we must do to break away from this inexorable dance of crises. It is an appeal to our political leaders, to do what we did not do when we had the opportunity after Marcos, open our eyes to the flaws in our political and governmental system, and craft a design that will effectively transfer power over the state from the oligarchy and the political bosses to the people and their legitimate organizations,” Roxas said.

He urged technocrats to “reexamine” their “analytical paradigms” and “restore to their profession the older meaning of the true professional who is not a mercenary, or gun for hire, not even a tradesman selling services and arts that heal a society’s illnesses and develop its creative potentials.”

More importantly, he urged ordinary citizens to play a more important role in bringing about meaningful change. 

“It is an appeal to the brave and decidated leaders of our civil society organizations who realize more than anybody else that their movement has become the ‘third force’ to which the nation must now look for the reforms in both the political and economic systems that can free us from these inexorable cycles and toward the path of sustainable development,” he said.

In this book, Roxas also acknowledged “the most profound and personal of debts” to his children, Vinci and Iya, who, he said, “have had to suffer gross neglect from their father, who, too often in the pressure of research and writing and just thinking, has had to cancel dates for bonding.”

A one-day wake is set on Thursday, starting at 3 pm, at the Dambana Eucharistic Hermitage Chapel in Botolan, Zambales. Camara said Roxas’ remains will be transferred to Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig City starting Friday at 4 pm after send-off prayers at 8:30 am in Zambales.

His funeral mass will be on Sunday at 10 am, followed by inurnment at Christ the King Columbarium at Greenmeadows. – Rappler.com